C. Keith Harrison
Keith Harrison is Professor of Business, HipHop, and Sport at UCF and has served as Associate Unit Head/Chief Academic Officer of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program in the College of Business and founding director (2006-2014) of The Minor That’s Major™ Sport Business Management Undergraduate Program. Harrison has held faculty positions at Washington State University, the University of Michigan, Arizona State University, and UCF. A former NCAA ScholarballerÒin football at Cerritos College and West Texas A & M (WT) where he started at center for four years as well as graduate along with making the honor roll twice at (WT), Harrison went on to earn his graduate degree at Cal-State University, Dominguez Hills, and his doctorate in higher education from the University of Southern California. Harrison has published numerous peer-review articles, academic book chapters, and has co-edited three books with one on sport data analytics, another on education, HipHop and sport, and a third book on HipHop innovation and entrepreneurship. He is Senior-Editor-in-Chief of the academic outlet the Journal of Higher Education Athletics & Innovation. He is the president and co-founder ofscholarballer.org and researcher for the NFL’s good business diversity and inclusion series. Harrison has also consulted for over two decades with several universities, corporate brands, and professional sport organizations. In 2020-21 Harrison earned the prestigious Harvard University Hutchins Center for African and African American Research Nasir Jones HipHop Fellowship in Cambridge, MA. Harrison grew up in Gardena and Cerritos, California and is the proud Godfather of Tre Harrison a Scholarballer at Serra High School (CA), a three sport athlete and honors student.
Curtis Walker
Curtis Walker is TurnkeyZRG’s Vice President in charge of recruitment across revenue positions, focusing exclusively on corporate partnerships positions (sales, strategy, and service). A sales practitioner, Curtis has hands-on experience selling and servicing partnerships roles, sell-side & buy-side. He is broadly networked and wired with property sales executives, as well as agency & brand marketing executives.
Before joining TurnkeyZRG, Curtis sold and activated marketing partnerships at the United Soccer League (USL) and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) where he focused on commercial outreach, strategy & new business development, creating innovative and first-of-its-kind partnerships. Prior to MiLB, Curtis spent time on the “buy side” with Coca-Cola Beverages of Florida (CCBF) building and selling marketing platforms which drove incremental product and operational income for the bottler. He also served on the ticket sales side with the Vinik Sport’s Group/Tampa Bay Lightning (TBL) as well as Learfield at the University of South Florida.
In 2020, Curtis Co-founded the Black Sport Business Academy (www.thebsba.com) – a 501 (c)(2) non-profit organization which exists to enhance the learning experience and career outcomes for students at HBCUs who are interested in pursuing a career in sports, and he also serves on the executive leadership board for the Tampa Chapter of Black Sports Professionals (BSP).
A proud alum of HBCU Virginia State University (VSU), he graduated with a degree in Health and Physical Education with a concentration in Sport Management. He also earned his M.B.A. & Master of Sport Business Management from the DeVos Sport Business Management program at the University of Central Florida (UCF). During his time, he served under Dr. Richard Lapchick as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for TIDES: The Institute of Diversity and Ethics and Sports – assessing ethnic and gender hiring practices across sports.
