Episode 22: D.J. Preston at Radford University

Welcome to the Director Download, powered by Campus Rec Magazine. It’s time to go behind the curtain of the director role and have honest discussions with leaders in the campus recreation industry. In this episode, host Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University and the senior advisor to Campus Rec Magazine, gives you the listener real and authentic conversation between himself and special guest D.J. Preston, the director of Recreation and Wellness at Radford University. Preston shares how an injury while playing football eventually led him to campus rec and the career he now pursues. He speaks on his time at Texas State, how he came to see campus rec as a career and a call that he got from Ali Cross that changed his life. He also shares on moving from a sports club coordinator to a senior associate director, and how he became a director after applying for it again, having turned down the job offer the first time. Sheffield also has Preston discuss leading through culture change, avoiding burnout and the biggest surprise of being a director.