James Allan promoted to director of strategic communications in Sept. 2024 after serving as an associate director from 2016-24 and an assistant director from 2010-16. The 2024-25 academic year will be Allan’s 18th season with the Hawkeyes; he was a student assistant from 2000-04.
Allan is the communications contact for men’s basketball and the secondary football contact. He also supervises the communications efforts for women’s golf and women’s tennis programs.
Allan has served as the sports contact for 21 Hawkeye sports at some point during his Iowa tenure. In 2015, he led the communications efforts for the Iowa baseball team at the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan. The Hawkeyes earned the silver medal while representing the United States. It was the first American squad to medal in Universiade history.
Prior to returning to his alma mater, Allan was the sports information director at the University of Missouri-Kansas City from 2005-10 and he served as the athletics media relations intern at Texas Christian University in 2004-05.
The Hampton, Iowa, native earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 2004. He is a member of College Sports Communicators, the Football Writer’s Association of America and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
He and his wife, Mary Ann, have four children — Jonathan, Will, Eleanor and Olivia.