Jess Poppen is entering his 3rd academic year as a full-time member of the UNW Sports Information department for his alma mater in 2025-26 and his 2nd as Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Information.
Jess not only has deep ties to Northwestern, but also specifically to the UNW Sports Information Department. He graduated from Northwestern in 2017 with a Kinesiology - Sports Management degree and played two seasons on the UNW Men's Basketball team. He also served as a vital part of the Eagles' Sports Information Department during his time as a student, serving as an Athletic Communications Intern under former UNW Sports Information Director and current USC Deputy Athletic Director/Chief of Staff Jay Hilbrands. Upon returning to Northwestern in 2023, he was named Assistant Sports Information Director under David Pederson.
In his time as Assistant SID, Poppen was UNW's primary Sports Information Contact for Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Tennis, and Men's and Women's Lacrosse. As the head of Northwestern's Sports Information department, he now oversees Football, Volleyball, Men's and Women's Golf, Men's and Women's Basketball, Baseball, and Men's and Women's Tennis. Poppen also leads a staff of 50+ student workers who work in a variety of office and game day roles.
Jess had many different roles and responsibilities while serving as an intern in the Sports Information Department that had him well prepared him to step into a full-time role in the department. While serving as an intern in the department back in 2017, Poppen was named the official Sports Information Contact for the Men's and Women's Golf teams. He also served as the Secondary Contact for the UNW Football and Volleyball programs. The other duties that Jess had in that role included writing post-game recaps, serving as the social media manager on game days, announcing and producing broadcasts on the Eagle Sports Network, and serving as the media liaison/announcer/social media manager for the 2017 NCAA Division III St. Paul Regional Volleyball Tournament.
After graduating from Northwestern, Poppen continued to gain experience in the sports industry. He spent the 2018 NFL season as the Minnesota Vikings' Football Operations Intern after interning with the department the previous two preseasons. The position required a vast variety of duties, including hotel and travel preparations for games, game day player operations, audio management at practices, transporting players, handling ticket requests for players, coaches and football staff, as well as other day-to-day logistics.
Before returning to UNW,, Poppen most recently served as a Business Development Representative for Airborne Athletics Inc. in Bloomington, Minnesota. In this role, he oversaw sales of Airborne's Dr. Dish Basketball and AirCAT Volleyball products, primarily to customers in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine and Canada. This position allowed him to interact with college and high school athletic programs, as well as commercial training facilities, on a daily basis.
Poppen currently resides in Ramsey.
