Omar X. Easy, Ph.D., a former Penn State football student-athlete and Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders running back, has been appointed to lead The Penn State Brand Academy as Assistant Athletics Director for the Brand Academy. The Brand Academy, a project recently launched by Invent Penn State in partnership with Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics and funded through the Wally Triplett Brand Academy Endowment, is designed to help student-athletes and others manage and leverage their brand, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and more successfully support their entrepreneurial interests. In his role as assistant athletics director for the Brand Academy, Easy will be responsible for building a nationally recognized student-athlete brand program, developing and executing NIL strategies, and envisioning and overseeing educational programming, events, and resources that directly equip students with an entrepreneurial mindset and the skills necessary to engage in NIL opportunities. Most recently, Easy held leadership roles, including superintendent of schools, director, and executive director, at public preK-12 school districts in Massachusetts. Easy developed key initiatives to advance early childhood education in those roles, created a districtwide language-based program, implemented state-recognized Innovative Pathways and Academies, and collaborated with town and city administration to develop and institute local improvement projects. Easy previously worked in Penn State Athletics as the director of football player development in 2012, where he supported student academic and personal growth and promoted community relations for the football program. Easy received his Ph.D. in educational leadership from Penn State, his M.Ed. in education administration, and his B.A. in broadcast journalism. He also received his M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix. The Brand Academy, housed in the Morgan Academic Center, Greenburg Complex, will be an extension of the Invent Penn State entrepreneurial ecosystem housed in the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub in downtown State College. It will leverage the Innovation Hub's resources, such as Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank, the Penn State Law Clinics, and the Penn State Small Business Development Center.
