CLEVELAND, Ohio – Rhode Island Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn is one of 28 winners of the 2025 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics AD of the Year, the organization announced Monday.

The award spans seven divisions – NCAA FBS, FCS, Division I-AAA, II, III, NAIA/Other Four-Year Institutions and Junior College/Community Colleges. Bjorn is one of four athletics directors being honored in the FCS division. The others are Montana State's Leon Costello, North Dakota State's Matt Larsen and Jacksonville State's Ashley Robinson.

All 28 winners will be recognized in conjunction with the 60th Annual NACDA & Affiliates Convention at the World Center Marriott Resort in Orlando, Fla., at the beginning of the Association-Wide Featured Session on Tuesday, June 10, starting at 4 p.m.
 
The ADOY Award highlights the efforts of athletics directors at all levels for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities.
 
"NACDA is proud to usher in a new class of Athletics Director of the Year Award winners for 2024-25 and recognize these servant leaders guiding their departments into a new age of intercollegiate athletics," said Pat Manak, NACDA chief executive officer. "Each of the seven Divisions has at least one first-time honoree, including four brand new winners in the junior college ranks. These 28 individuals represent their institutions, conferences and the industry as a whole with a level of dedication and passion that shines through in their collective accomplishments."

Now in his 18th year at Rhode Island, Bjorn has overseen several significant initiatives in recent years. In the 2024-25 year alone, URI had women's lacrosse officially begin NCAA Division I competition, marking the department's first new NCAA varsity program since women's rowing was added in 1996. In the Fall of 2024, a $1.3 million re-turfing project was completed at Beck Field, the home of Rhode Island baseball. The athletic department will break ground on its new outdoor track & field facility in the Spring of 2025. In addition to those projects, Bjorn worked with University and state leaders to secure more than $64 million in funding for athletic facility renovations that will include brand new East stands at Meade Stadium, new infrastructure for the Tootell Aquatic Center as well as enhancements to the URI Soccer, Softball and Baseball complexes.
 
For academic year ending in 2024, URI student-athletes earned an overall GPA of 3.28, with 48.7% of URI student-athletes making the Dean's List. On Oct. 24, the department raised $1.174 million in one day as part of its first Rhody Athletics Challenge Day. Bjorn also restructured URI's NCAA Compliance office to better serve athletic department and student athlete needs to ensure compliance and adapt to changing NCAA legislation; instituted a Title IX plan which included facility upgrades and the creation of numerous new full-time assistant coaching positions for women's sports; and worked in conjunction with the University President to create a women's athletics marketing and fundraising position.

In competition, Rhode Island won a share of the CAA Football title for the first time in program history in November. It was the eighth team title – across five different sports – that Rhode Island has won since the start of the 2023-24 school year.

The ADOY Award program is in its 27th year and has recognized a total of 605 deserving athletics directors to date.

All NACDA-member directors of athletics in the United States, Canada and Mexico who met the criteria were eligible for the award. Among the criteria were service as an AD for a minimum of five academic years; demonstration of commitment to higher education and student-athletes; continuous teamwork, loyalty and excellence; and the ability to inspire individuals or groups to high levels of accomplishments. Additionally, each AD's institution must have passed a compliance check through its appropriate governing body (i.e., NCAA, NAIA, etc.), in which the institution could not have been on probation or cited for a lack of institutional control during the tenure of the current athletics director.
 
Nominators were NACDA-member directors of athletics, institutional presidents and conference commissioners, as well as other respected intercollegiate athletics administrators. Special Divisional Selection Committees composed of current and former directors of athletics, current and former commissioners and other key athletics administrators voted on nominees for the award. Additional history surrounding the ADOY award, including a list of past winners, can be found here.
 
Hotel and Convention registration for #NACDA25 is now live. Visit nacda.com/convention for more information.
 
About NACDA: Now in its 60th year, NACDA is the professional and educational Association for more than 24,000 college athletics administrators at more than 2,300 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. NACDA manages 19 professional associations and four foundations. In addition to virtual programming, NACDA hosts and/or has a presence at seven major professional development events in-person annually. The NACDA & Affiliates Convention is the largest gathering of collegiate athletics administrators in the country. For more information, visit www.nacda.com.