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Jim Pignataro is in his 6th year as the Associate Athletics Director and Director of Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) at Michigan State. He provides leadership to 13 full-time employees and two graduate assistants who are responsible for managing academic support programs for student-athletes in each of MSU’s 25 varsity sports. Under Pignataro’s guidance, MSU’s sports teams had posted record cumulative grade point averages ranging from 2.9573 to 3.0030 and have posted the largest number of sports with a 3.00 cumulative team grade point average or higher at fourteen. In addition, the highest number of student-athlete maintaining a 3.00 CUM GPA (329) came after the Fall 2003. The Spring 2008 term produced the highest department GPA of 3.0030, and 43 student-athletes achieved a perfect 4.00 grade point average.
Community outreach and service have been a priority for Pignataro’s program placing over 300 student-athletes in outreach activities during the 2006-07 academic year. Now in its fifth year, the outreach initiative called PACT (Putting Athletes and Community Together) has reached over 40,000 area children as will as touched the lives of many.
Pignataro’s vision on diversity programming has had a significant impact on the daily lives of student-athletes. In 2003, he created the Student-Athlete Multicultural Center, which now provides quality leadership training for MSU minority student-athletes as well as provide social and outreach programs. The mission of the program is to provide student-athletes with cultural and diversity experiences that will enhance their professional growth, development and leadership. The Program is designed to collaborate with campus resources, elevate the academic success of student-athletes and increase the campus involvement of student-athletes.
No stranger to Michigan State, Pignataro served as the Assistant to the Director and Athletics Academic Counselor at Michigan State from 1996-2000. He left MSU to serve as the Assistant Athletics Director for Academics at Eastern Michigan University from June 2000 to June 2002. The 36-year-old also worked in Athletic Academic Services at Florida State University (1995-96) and the University of Tennessee (1994-1995) prior to his arrival at MSU. Born in Queens, N.Y., Pignataro grew up in Raymond, Maine, and graduated from Gray-New Gloucester High School in 1990. He was a multi-year varsity letterwinner in baseball at the University of Maine at Farmington. He received his bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary business administration/economics from Maine-Farmington in 1994 and a master’s degree in athletics administration from Tennessee in 1995. Pignataro is married to the former Alana Inkala, who competed on MSU’s women’s tennis team, and has two children Alison and James.
Please click here to find out information regarding Student-Athlete Support Services 10 Year Anniversary Year-Long event.
For additional information on Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) Successes, please click here to hear a Podcast with Jim Pignataro.
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