PHD Student

Promise Uzodinma Iheanacho

Promise is a sport management doctoral candidate in the School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota. In 2015, Promise earned his Bachelor of Education in Human Kinetics at the University of Ibadan. He won the Pan African University Scholarship, fully funded by the African Union in 2017, to study a master’s degree in Sport Management and Policy Development at the Pan African University of Life and Earth Sciences Institute, University of Ibadan. He has worked as a sports coach and assisted in lecturing at Elizade University.

Promise's research focuses on esports and organizational change in sport. His academic and research pursuits have been bolstered by scholarships and grants such as the Edith Mueller Endowed Fund for Graduate Education in the Tucker Center and the Dissertation Proposal Development (DPD) grant. He assists in teaching Introduction to Sport Management, Sport Marketing, and Research Methods in Sport Management at the undergraduate level. Beyond academia, he finds joy in various hobbies, which include reading, dancing, playing soccer, and badminton.

Pang Mingyang

Mingyang is a second-year PhD student in Sport Management and a member of the Sport Marketing and Innovative Technology Lab at the University of Minnesota. Currently, he assists in teaching Introduction to Sport Management at the undergraduate level. His research investigates how innovative technologies shape sport consumption, focusing on (1) the effectiveness and legitimacy of tech interventions in sport media, (2) their impacts on fan attitudes, engagement, and behavior, and (3) the ethical dimensions of technology use.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Mingyang gained industry experience in research project management and social media marketing, which sparked his current research interests. His work has been supported by scholarships and grants, including the Advance Graduate Education Fellowship. He holds two master’s degrees in sport communication and journalism, and has studied in China, Japan, Ireland, and the United States. In his free time, he enjoys playing and watching sports.

Graduate and Undergraduate Student

David Keegan

David is a Sport Management MEd student in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota. Originally from Dublin, Ireland he graduated first class honors with a degree in Geography and Political Science from Trinity College Dublin in 2024 and spent a year studying abroad at the University of Florida. During his time at the University of Minnesota he has worked as a graduate mentor to Gopher student-athletes and as a research assistant in the Sport Marketing and Innovative Technology Lab, where he has contributed to projects on sport innovative technology and name, image and likeness (NIL) in college athletics.

Keegan’s research interests include examining the impacts of the recent NIL changes in college athletics with a particular focus on athlete branding and sport competitiveness. He also has an interest in the interaction between sport, geography and politics having received the highest grade in his undergraduate thesis on Sportswashing. Beyond academia, he enjoys watching and playing a variety of sports including football, soccer, darts and golf. 

Gu Hongkai (Kevin)

Hongkai (Kevin) Gu, originally from Shanghai, is a senior undergraduate honors student at the University of Minnesota, double majoring in Sport Management and Special Education (ABS Licensure Track). He has extensive experience working across both fields: in sport, he serves as a Sport Assistant and Lead Intern for Gopher Sports Marketing, and as an Esports Lab Monitor and Intramural Esports Supervisor. In the education field, he has worked as a research assistant for faculty in Educational Psychology, engaging in projects on parent–child interactions, reading interventions, and development monitoring.

Kevin’s research interests lie at the intersection of sport, education, and technology. He is currently conducting a literature review on how structured team-based esports training impacts the cognitive and social development of youth with disabilities, as his Honor Thesis. He also contributes to projects on NIL and athlete branding in Dr. Bo Yu’s Sport Marketing and Innovative Technology Lab.

Beyond academics, Kevin is passionate about travel, soccer, tennis, and Go.