Mel Brennan

Mel Brennan is an American scholar, writer, critic and higher-education leader from Maryland. He is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Experience and Opportunity at McDaniel College, and the author, with Grant Jarvie and Tony Hwang, of Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics.

Education

Brennan, who is African-American, holds a Bachelors degree in History and in Political Science from McDaniel College and pursued a Ph.D. (ABD) in Sports Studies from the University of Stirling, with a completed thesis, undefended, on an examination of sport and human rights through the lens of Olympiads and accepted human rights indicators. Mel is a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians.

Career and writing

Mel began his professional career as a Confidential Investigator with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, then spent time in general management for for-profit endeavors like Sega GameWorks, WWFE and the Walt Disney Company, where he focused of games, attractions and restaurant development.

A transition to governance, academia and thought leadership saw global opportunities to help those in need and critique the worldwide workings of sport while working for FIFA, CONCACAF, and the University of Stirling (Scotland, UK). While studying in the UK, Mel developed his analysis of sport and citizenship, writing at the Soccer Apprentice blog and developing portals such as CitizenLife.

Mel returned to the USA in 2005 to teach at Towson University and curate the first TEDTalk in Baltimore City, TEDxBaltimore. Mel taught at Towson as first a visiting professor then a tenure-track professor in the Department of Kinesiology from 2005-2008, then left to lead in nonprofit movements across the state and the region, serving as a member of the Executive teams of cutting edge nonprofits like Thread, Inc. in Baltimore, and serving in the C-Suite of institutional ones like the United Way and the YMCA Movement in MD and NJ; he served as Deputy Director of the Office of Compliance Consultants at Rikers Island, as statewide VP of the programs and networks for Maryland Food Bank and as CEO of the Fuel Fund of Maryland.

Currently, Brennan is working on several projects: sport corruption, policing, and alternatives and the viability of moving beyond civic education into citizen empowerment. He also appears as a contributor in the Netflix documentary "FIFA Uncovered." Mel is also developing a book categorizing for effective action his time and observations as the highest-ranked African-American in the history of world football governance through frameworks on the possibility of sport from leaders in the field like Jay Coakley.

He has participated in various interviews. In 2006, he was interviewed by Andrew Jennings for the BBC Panorama show regarding soccer corruption.. Mel has been called upon for expertise from a number of international outlets as well, including Sky Sports News, BBC World Football with Alan Green, Australia's ABC Radio with Simon Santow, the German documentary Foulspiel and the documentary feature film "Can We Kick It?," being developed by Professor Edward Robinson and the Center for the Study of Race & Culture in Sports at Morgan State College.

References

This article "Mel Brennan" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Mel Brennan. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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