Courtesy: Mark Washburn Bob Ceplikas

Robert A. Ceplikas, a 1978 graduate of Dartmouth College and 30-year veteran of  the college's staff in athletics and admissions assumed the role of Acting Director of Athletics and Recreation on July 1, 2009.

Ceplikas will serve for the 2009-2010 academic year while the college conducts a national search for a successor to Josie Harper, who served as the college's seventh athletics director for the past seven years before retirement.

As Acting Director, Ceplikas oversees 34 varsity sports (16 men's, 16 women's and two coed) as well as comprehensive club sports and intramural programs in which nearly three-quarters of Dartmouth's undergraduates participate.

Ceplikas has been the Deputy Director of Athletics for the past 15 years, serving under both Harper and former Athletics Director Dick Jaeger. He currently oversees the department's annual giving programs including the Athletic Sponsor Program (to support recruiting) and individual sports' Friends Groups. Total donations have grown nearly four times from approximately $500,000 to nearly $2 million annually during his tenure.

With extensive supervisory experience, Ceplikas has most recently overseen varsity athletics communications, and marketing and promotions. He has also played a pivotal role in long-range planning and assisted the athletics director with external relations and overall management of the department.

Upon graduating from Dartmouth in 1978, Ceplikas joined the college's admissions office, where he held four different positions in his 11 years on staff. For six of those years (1979-85), he also was an assistant coach for the Big Green women's hockey team, helping build that program from a fledgling varsity squad to a competitive team. After earning a master's degree in education from Stanford University in 1990, Ceplikas returned to his alma mater as an athletics administrator, which led to his appointment as Deputy Director of Athletics in 1994.

Ceplikas and his wife Lynn, an English teacher at Hanover High School, reside in Lebanon. Their daughter, Holly '13, is a member of the freshman class at Dartmouth and son, Luke, is a junior in high school.