Committee completed for UNLV athletic director search

UNLV has formed its 17-member search committee for the new athletic director, and the head of the search firm will be in Las Vegas early next week as the process moves forward in earnest.

The committee includes 13 voting members and four others who will be part of the process by providing input and taking part in meetings. They include former Gov. Bob Miller and Boyd Gaming executive chairman Bill Boyd.

Men’s soccer coach Rich Ryerson and track coach Yvonne Wade are among the voting members of the committee, which is chaired by Nancy Rapoport, special counsel to university president Len Jessup.

“The bylaws worked beautifully,” Rapoport said Friday. “We’ve got a great committee, and I think we’re all ready to roll up our sleeves and get cracking.”

Todd Turner, who runs Collegiate Sports Associates, will arrive in Las Vegas on Monday night and meet with the committee Tuesday or Wednesday. Rapoport said she didn’t expect Turner to provide names of potential candidates.

“We’re treating this the way we would treat any other search,” Rapoport said. “When we have other people doing other types of searches, it’s important to get their take. It’s also important for us as names come on board to look at everybody.”

Athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy’s contract was extended until June 30 to help ease the transition to her successor, and then she will move to the UNLV Foundation.

“We’re expecting (the search) to go smoothly and reasonably quickly, but we’re casting a wide net,” Rapoport said.

The next task, she said, was for the committee to draft and post the advertisement for the position.

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.