MILWAUKEE, Wis. — On college basketball’s biggest stage, a familiar face to Wisconsin had a front-row role.
UW-Milwaukee Athletic Director Amanda Braun took center stage at the Women’s National Championship, presenting the 2026 trophy to the UCLA Bruins as the chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee.
"The inside of me is the 14-year-old, you know, like I can't believe I'm doing this," Braun said. "This is just a dream come true."
It's a dream she didn’t even know she had while growing up in Brodhead, Wis., or while playing at Siena College in New York.
"From there, I had no intention of working in sports," Braun said.
Braun earned a degree in psychology and was on a pre-physical therapy track before pivoting to the law program at Duke University. She soon realized law was not what she wanted to do, either.
"Proud Law School dropout, I tell students that all the time," Braun smiled. "It's okay to change your mind sometimes. It's not quitting, it's just changing your mind, and I did that."
A trajectory change was sparked by a single question in law school: “Have you ever thought about a career in athletic administration?”
That question set her on a path to earn a degree in sports administration at UNC Chapel Hill, leading to roles at UW-Green Bay, Northeastern, and eventually UW-Milwaukee.
Watch: UWM AD Amanda Braun paves the way for future women in sports leadership
Braun is the first woman to serve as athletic director at UW-Milwaukee.
"It's important for me that our student athletes – that women I meet out in the industry – understand that this is an option, that this is a job that they can do and there's no reason they can't, so that part of it's really important to me," Braun said. "Day in and day out, I'm just working really hard at trying to clear the path for this department and support this university for achieving our goals."
While taking UWM to new heights over the last 13 years, she has also made an impact nationally. Braun served on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee for five years during a time of historic growth, helping shape everything from the bracket to media rights.
"It was a joy," Braun said. "Having been a student athlete and just a gym rat of a basketball player since I was a kid, being a part of that was really, really special and an honor to get to the five years and to chair the committee."
Her journey with the tournament represents a full-circle moment. Braun attended her first NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four as a Siena College senior in 1995 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. In 2022, she returned to the Target Center as UWM's athletic director and a first-year member of the committee.
"My first final four I was a senior in college in Minneapolis, and you know I've told the story, sleeping on the couch of a family friend and up in the rafters, and my first Final Four in the committee was back in Minneapolis and no longer sleeping on the couch and sitting in the front row, so what a full circle moment for me," Braun said.
While her term on the committee comes to an end, empowering women in the game will always be at the forefront of her mission.
"You know, I do think that the idea that women can be leaders in sports is becoming more and more visible," Braun said. "Surprises me even sometimes when I see numbers, but that's progress we can make, and that's something I'm intent on trying to help."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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