Sandra Taylor, Director of The Learning Center
Sandra Taylor was appointed as Director of The Learning Center in late September 2014 after serving as Interim Director for the previous 16 months.
She joined NJIT in January 2010 as Academic Advisor for Student-Athletes working in NJIT’s Center for Academic and Personal Enrichment (CAPE), which has since been renamed as The Learning Center.
She mentored student-athletes in the areas of academic support, personal development, leadership, and community service. She was instrumental in bringing the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society for student-athletes to campus and has been individually certified from the N4A (National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics) as an academic advisor for student-athletes.
In May 2013, she was elevated to Interim Director of CAPE and presided over its transition to the Learning Center in August of 2014. The Learning Center provides academic support to all students, mentoring and workshops, tutoring in areas outside of math and writing, and testing accommodations for students with disabilities. She has served on NJIT’s Strategic Planning, Academic Advising, Retention and Persistence, Customer Service, Student Satisfaction, and Athletic Oversight Committees.
Prior to joining NJIT, Taylor spent 17 years as a key member of the Manhattan College Department of Athletics. She earned both her bachelor’s degree in secondary education and her master’s degree in special education from Manhattan College and is working on her doctorate in educational leadership at St. Mary’s University in Winona, MN.
Working in the athletics department at Manhattan, a founding member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Taylor was Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator, having filled those posts from 1996 until joining NJIT in 2010,
For much of her time on the Manhattan staff (1995 to 2003), she was Chief Athletic Department Compliance Officer, with responsibility for Manhattan’s adherence to NCAA Division I, MAAC and college regulations. She began her service at Manhattan as Athletic Department Ticket Manager, serving in that capacity from 1993 to 2003.
In her time at Manhattan, she served on numerous NCAA, conference and internal college committees, including service on the NCAA Division I Management Council from 2004 to 2007 and as chair of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Committee from 2002 to 2006.
At the conference level, she chaired the MAAC Women’s Basketball Committee from 1997 to 2009 and also served on four other sport committees, as well as on the MAAC Committee on Athletic Administration, with service as vice-chair in 2008-09.
Internally at Manhattan, her assignments included service on the Middle States Review in 2000 and on the NCAA Certification Committee.
Sandra and her husband, Ken, who is Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball and Baseball at the MAAC, reside in Monroe Township, NJ, with their daughters, Katherine, who was born in May 2004, and Samantha, who was born in July 2009.
Mike Spisto, Eligibility Certification Office/Academic Advisor for Athletics/Academic Advisor for Athletics
Mike Spisto moved to administration as NJIT’s Eligibility Certification Office/ Academic Adviser for Athletics in the Spring of 2013, working in the Center for Academic and Personal Enrichment (CAPE), now named The Learning Center.
For the previous five years, he was the top assistant coach on the men’s basketball staff, working with head coach Jim Engles in an association that culminated with the Highlanders capturing the 2013 regular season championship of the Great West Conference.
In addition to 14 years college coaching—five at NJIT—he served as Director of Athletics at the State University of New York at Delhi in the two years before he joined Engles’ coaching staff with the Highlanders.
He had two stints as head coach at SUNY at Delhi sandwiched around three years as a Division I assistant with Rider and Albany (NY). He began his coaching career with two years an assistant at his alma mater, Division III SUNY Oneonta.
At Delhi, which is also an alma mater, he was head coach from 1999 to 2001, left to become a Division I assistant and then returned for another two-year stint as head coach from 2004 to 2006 before becoming AD at Delhi.
His head coaching record in four years at SUNY Delhi was 86-31 and both stints included championships and coaching awards. His first Division I coaching assignment came at Rider University in 2001-02, where he worked alongside Jim Engles as an assistant when Rider captured its first-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season championship.
Heading to the University at Albany (NY), he helped recruit the team that would win back-to-back America East Conference championships.
Spisto’s coaching career began at Oneonta State following his 1997 graduation. In addition to his bachelor’s degree from Oneonta, he earned an associate’s degree from SUNY Delhi, as well as an MSS from United States Sports Academy.
He played at both Delhi and Oneonta and was all-region twice at Delhi, where he is the career assists leader. At Oneonta he was captain as a senior after winning an ECAC title his junior year.
Mike and his wife, Katie-Lynn, reside in Staten Island, NY, with their young children: sons Michael (9) and Christopher (6), and daughter Alyssa (2).
Brittany Allard, Academic Advisor for Athletics
Brittany Allard, moved to administration as NJIT’s Academic Advisor for Student-Athletes in Fall 2015, working in The Learning Center.
For the previous three years, she was an assistant on the NJIT Athletic Training staff, working with women’s soccer and men’s volleyball teams.
She earned her bachelor's degree, majoring in athletic training, from Bridgewater (MA) State University in 2010 and was the school’s 2008-09 Athletic Training Student of the Year.
She earned her master's in Kinesiology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, in May 2012. At James Madison, she worked with the cross country, track and field, tennis and cheerleading teams.
Brittany resides with her husband Joe live in Morristown, NJ.
