Charles W. Mentkowski Sports Law Award

Kerri L. Cebula, Law ’06
Pottstown, Pa.

Those who know Kerri Cebula well aren’t surprised that she named the late Enzo Ferrari as the person she’d most like to invite to dinner. A motorsports enthusiast, Kerri chose a career that combines her love of sport with her legal expertise.

For Kerri, the call to Be The Difference means ensuring that the next generation of sports management professionals has a solid understanding of sports law. She is currently an associate professor of Sports Management at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. “My favorite part of being a professor is watching students grow,” she adds.

Looking back at her own student experience at Marquette, Kerri says the International Intellectual Property course she took continues to shape her current research agenda. She also has fond memories of studying in Sensenbrenner Hall’s Eisenberg Room. “There was something about that room that made you realize you were in law school,” she says.

She calls the certificate in sports law that she earned at Marquette “a huge asset in my career,” and Professor Paul Anderson, director of the Sports Law Program and National Sports Law Institute, has been an important mentor. Kerri served as his research assistant while at Marquette. “There are no words to describe the impact he has had on my life,” she says, adding wryly, “even if he thinks motorsport isn’t a sport.”

She remains engaged in the Law School’s comprehensive sports law program, presenting at seminars and conferences and serving as a judge for the sports law ethics writing competition. The stand-out reputation of the sports law program means something in this field, Kerri explains: “When people hear I went to Marquette, there’s a substantial prestige factor.”

Fun Fact: Kerri's favorite quote is from Austrian Formula One driver Niki Lauda: “People criticize Formula One as an unnecessary risk. But what would life be like if we only did what is necessary?”

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