Our Call to Beneficence Ball State University

Brady Sallee became the head women’s basketball coach at Ball State University in 2012. Since then, he has established a culture of excellence for the Cardinals, a culture that is rooted in fundamentals and teamwork. For years now, Brady has broken records in Ball State Athletics. He is the only head coach to take his team to nine postseason tournaments, and with 237 victories, he is the winningest basketball coach in Ball State University.   

In this episode, Brady shares how his recruiting skills helped him to advance in his career and how coming to Ball State represented an excellent opportunity to compete at the next level. He also shares some of his favorite Cardinal victories and how he began his tradition of treating players to ice cream after every win. 

Later in the conversation, Brady shares how his “Seven Pillars” helped him to build a strong program at Ball State. And he reveals how his family’s new business venture in The Village, Everbowl, has strengthened their ties to the Muncie community. 

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Hollis Hughes is very well known by many members of the Ball State University community. As a two-time graduate, Hollis had the distinction of serving on the University’s Board of Trustees for more than two decades. Previously, he served as a board member of the Ball State University Foundation, the Alumni Council, and the Black Alumni Council.

Hollis studied at Ball State at a time when segregated housing policies existed on our campus and in our community. In this episode, he shares how a university employee helped him to navigate those challenging circumstances. He also reveals how Ball State taught him valuable lessons that helped him transcend cultural barriers throughout his life. 

Later in the conversation, Hollis shares his opinions about some of the biggest developments at the University to coincide with his volunteer service as a trustee. And he discusses why serving others—at work and in the community—is how he’s been able to accomplish goals on behalf of his colleagues, his community, and his alma mater. 

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Anand Marri serves as Ball State’s Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, a position for which he is responsible for the University’s academic mission, including supporting leadership for all academic units. 

When he accepted the role in October 2023, Dr. Marri was no stranger to Ball State. He previously served three years as dean of the Teachers College, during which time enrollment in the college increased and faculty and staff generated a significant increase in external funding to support their research.

In this episode, Dr. Marri talks about the rewards and challenges of his new role and why he chose to leave behind a tenured professorship at Columbia University to advance his career as an administrator at Ball State. He also shares stories about his childhood spent growing up in the New York City borough of Queens. And he reveals details of how his pursuit of a career in education has taken him from the East Coast to the West Coast with stops in the Midwest along the way. 

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Over the past three decades of his career at Ball State, Jim Lowe has dedicated himself to ensuring the functionality, comfort, safety, and sustainability of every building that makes up the University’s campus. 

As the associate vice president for facilities planning and management, Jim is responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the University’s facilities—and for planning, designing, and constructing our future buildings.  

Jim’s career has encompassed a series of milestones, from implementing an influential program to address the maintenance of the University’s buildings to overseeing the implementation of the University’s distinctive geothermal energy system. 

In this episode, Jim talks about these accomplishments and more, as well his appreciation for his hometown of Muncie. He also reveals why he gives back to the community to the extent that he does, through his service on many boards, including the board that governs Muncie Community Schools. 

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Over the past three seasons, President Geoffrey S. Mearns has been the one asking his guests questions on “Our Call to Beneficence.” For this episode of the podcast, his two youngest children, his twins Geoffrey Jr. and Molly, turn the tables by interviewing him.

“Our goal in doing this was to hopefully give people a side of you that they might not know,” Geoffrey Jr. tells his father at the outset of their conversation. With that objective in mind, the President’s son and daughter ask him a host of questions about his upbringing, their family, and why he chose to become a lawyer before transitioning to a career in higher education.  

The trio end their time together by discussing what Beneficence means to President Mearns and why, based on personal experience, he believes that Ball State is such a distinctive and special place. 

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Betsy Ross is a Ball State graduate who became one of the first women to break into national sports news. Today, she is the president of Game Day Communications, a sports and entertainment communications firm based in Cincinnati. 

Betsy graduated from Ball State in 1972 with a degree in journalism. After working in print and television media in South Bend, Indiana, she became a television news anchor and reporter for the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati. 

In this episode, Betsy shares how her coverage of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta caught the eye of producers at ESPN. She also shares more about the business she later founded, Game Day Communications, and why she was inspired to write a book honoring the accomplishments of female athletes who made possible the opportunities that women in sports have today. 

Betsy also shares highlights from some of her favorite interviews from her decades-long career as a journalist, including the inspiring words that tennis legend Billie Jean King shared with her that Betsy has never forgotten. 

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