Staff Directory
- Title:
- Senior Associate Athletics Director, External Relations
- Email:
John Vaca serves as Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations at UC Riverside, providing leadership and strategic direction for the Highlanders’ external-facing units and operations. He also serves as the sport supervisor for men’s basketball, men’s soccer and softball.
Vaca brings extensive experience in intercollegiate athletics administration, development, corporate partnerships, fundraising, marketing and revenue generation.
Prior to joining UC Riverside, Vaca worked in development at the University of Southern California. He most recently served as a philanthropy officer with the USC Arcadia Hospital Foundation, where he oversaw major gift cultivation and solicitation, collaborated with internal departments on fundraising strategies and supervised development staff and interns.
Before his time at USC, Vaca spent eight years at Cal State Fullerton, including three years as director of corporate partnerships for Titan Athletics. In that role, he increased corporate partnership revenue by 175% in his first year and 200% in his second through sponsorship acquisition, renewals and activation initiatives. He also directed marketing, digital content, social media and multimedia rights activation strategies while overseeing corporate partnerships, donor relationships and numerous donor, community engagement and game-day events.
Vaca previously served as administrative coordinator and executive assistant for Titan Athletics, supporting athletics leadership with strategic planning, departmental operations, external relations, facilities, compliance and revenue-generating initiatives while collaborating across multiple athletics units and campus departments.
He began his tenure at Cal State Fullerton as a Titan Athletics development assistant before transitioning into a university advancement development coordinator role. During his time in university advancement, Vaca helped lead fundraising efforts that resulted in a $1 million endowment supporting first-generation students and oversaw staff focused on scholarship endowments and university programs.
Vaca earned a Master of Business Administration from Cal Poly Pomona in 2023 and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cal State Fullerton in 2018. He resides in the San Gabriel Valley with his wife, Dr. Gabriela Dupree-Vaca.
