Less than three miles away from Grand Canyon University, a young Jamie Boggs grew up. Her parents immigrated from Thailand, and the DNA of her success, based in discipline, drive and the belief that excellence was the standard, started in the shadows of the Lopes campus.
Before she became Grand Canyon’s Vice President of Athletics, before the championships, NCAA Tournament appearances and move into the Mountain West, Boggs was a high school student taking piano and voice lessons on the GCU campus. Back then, the university was part of her geography. Years later, it became part of her calling.
“I took piano lessons at GCU and voice lessons at GCU when I was in high school,” Boggs said. “I still have memories of those days when I walk around.”
When Boggs arrived at GCU in 2015, the university and athletics department were both in motion. GCU had only recently begun its Division I era and was still explaining what it was becoming. Inside the campus, though, Boggs found a place uninterested in copying anyone else’s model.
“We’re so outside the box,” Boggs said. “No one ever says, ‘Well, this is what we used to do where I was.’ It’s always, ‘What’s next?’ We’re never thinking about what everyone else is doing. It’s, ‘What are we going to do that’s innovative?’”
Boggs had spent more than 20 years in college athletics and had worked at places she describes as great, with great people. Yet GCU felt different: faster, more aligned, more entrepreneurial and deeply tied to mission.
“It took me a year to really understand the culture and how this university thinks,” Boggs said. “The culture, the mentality, the approach — everything here is so different.”
She describes it with a phrase that explains much of GCU’s growth: business with a mission.
“It was never just bottom line,” Boggs said. “It was business with a mission. You could see the university’s trajectory and that everyone was driving in the same direction. There are no silos in this university.”
The scale of that trajectory is part of the GCU story. Boggs points to a university that has grown from about 900 students to nearly 26,000 on campus. Athletics followed a similar path. In a little more than a decade at the Division I level, GCU has won 78 championships, produced top-25 programs and entered national conversations that once seemed far away.
For Boggs, that success is tied to the health of the university, campus alignment and a willingness to move with purpose.
“The success of the athletics program depends on the health of the university,” Boggs said. “So to me, it’s not surprising that we’ve won 78-plus championships, that we’ve been to the NCAA tournament, that our teams are ranked in the top 25. In my mind, we’re just starting.”
It would be easy to describe GCU’s rise as an arrival. Boggs sees it more like a foundation.
“We’ve had incredible success with our athletics program,” Boggs said. “We want whoever wants to be part of the Lopes family to know that this is the foundation, and we’re going to win national championships here.”
That ambition has been tested through transition. GCU moved from Division II to Division I, became a power in the WAC and then stepped into the Mountain West. Each jump brought new opponents, expectations and realities. The Mountain West demanded preparation rather than assumptions.
GCU had competed against Mountain West schools before, but Boggs knew occasional nonconference games were different from a league schedule. The grind would be real. Travel would change. Altitude would matter. Recruiting profiles would shift.
“Data doesn’t lie,” Boggs said. “We knew the competition was going to be tough as we moved into an elite league like the Mountain West.”
She did not want coaches to believe past dominance guaranteed future dominance. Success in one conference does not automatically transfer to the next. The department needed confidence but also humility.
“Playing strong competition week after week after week is another level,” Boggs said. “We knew this was going to be a transition. You recruit differently. The style is different. The travel is different. But we were prepared, and we had so much support from the university.”
That support was vital before GCU’s next conference home was finalized. Coaches recruit years ahead, especially in many women’s sports. They needed clarity, and sometimes Boggs could only give them scenarios: Option A, Option B, Option C.
“Prepare for all of them,” Boggs told her coaches during a time of limbo between the WAC and the Mountain West.
“It was a really unique time for us because we knew where we were going but just didn’t know officially when,” Boggs said. “I did everything I could to stay in communication with them and give them the options.”
But Boggs never let the conversation drift too far from mission. To her, GCU’s athletics story is not only about wins, TV windows or conference affiliations. It is about what kind of university the athletics department represents.
“There are student-athletes who choose us because of our Christian mission,” Boggs said. “When you come on campus and visit, you can feel it. You don’t have to be Christian to be here. We are very welcoming. But you can feel that all of us are mission-driven.”
When asked if there were any misconceptions about GCU, Boggs answered with a slow, knowing smile.
“This is a top university. We are one of the largest residential campuses in the country,” Boggs said. “I laugh when you hear things about us being online or even ‘fake.’ What does that even mean? If anything, I think it shows we are in a great spot, providing an innovative, student-centered experience in and out of the classroom.”
That experience is perhaps most visible in the Havocs, GCU’s student section. To outsiders, the Havocs can look like a perfectly engineered basketball atmosphere — organized chaos, purple energy and viral noise. Boggs believes the secret is not a checklist for success.
“Ultimately, it’s the culture of our university and the kinds of students who come here,” Boggs said. “They want to serve. They want to support their fellow students. And we in athletics do not view ourselves as the stars of this community. We are a part of this community.”
Boggs’ leadership style traces back to her family. Her parents, who immigrated from Thailand, did not raise her to think in terms of limits, especially not in a field long dominated by men.
“They weren’t like, ‘You’re going to be the best female,’” Boggs said. “They were like, ‘You’re going to be the best. You’re going to be competitive with everyone.’ It was never male or female.”
That foundation helped her walk into rooms where she was often the only woman, or one of very few, without being defined by it. But stepping into the chair gave her a different perspective. People began reaching out, telling her they had shared her story with daughters, granddaughters and sons.
“Then you realize, ‘Oh, this is important,’” Boggs said.
Still, the identity that resonates most with her reaches beyond being a female leader. For Boggs, it is about being a wife, a mom and a leader, serving at home while also serving through her work.
“I want young women and men to see that you can get married, you can have a family, and you can serve in the workplace and do great things,” Boggs said. “I hope I can be an example of that.”
That sense of service extends beyond athletics. Asked what she might do if she were not leading a Division I department, Boggs pointed to work with children who have been abused or exploited or serving the autism community. Even in a career now shaped by NIL, revenue sharing and the daily pressures of high-level college athletics, that calling remains close.
“Why am I trying to figure out NIL and agent negotiations?” Boggs said. “Why am I not helping children who are in terrible situations? There is more to life than athletics.”
For Boggs, that is not a detour from her athletics story. Her work at GCU is built around growth and purpose. Her leadership is shaped by a belief that athletics can be competitive, innovative and mission-driven at the same time.
Less than three miles from where she grew up, the campus has changed. The crowds are louder. The expectations are higher. The university that once sat in the background of her childhood is now a place where she helps lead the community and its student-athletes through their next chapter.
Boggs has seen that change up close. She has helped drive it. And yet, for all the championships and momentum, she still talks like someone standing near the beginning of something bigger.
“We are just starting,” she said.
At Grand Canyon, in the shadow of her home, Jamie Boggs is helping make sure the next chapter grows even louder.
