At the conference office, Stewart and his staff were responsible for internal and external communications for all Sun Belt Conference publicity.  Stewart created and helped institute media relations standards for every league school, served as the conference’s primary contact for men’s basketball, and was the conference liaison with ESPN/ERT and the school’s athletic directors in developing the Sun Belt’s annual football and basketball television schedule.  He also served on the BCS Media Relations Committee for college football’s 2008 National Championship Game. 

Prior to coming to the Sun Belt, Stewart worked in the National Football League for 15 years.  He was hired by the Cleveland Browns as Executive Director of Communications and Media Relations in 1999, helping to create the franchise’s communications/media relations department as it reentered the league as an expansion team.  Stewart developed the Browns’ strategy for releasing organizational messages via press conferences, press releases, interviews, the team’s official web site and publications.   The club’s website, clevelandbrowns.com, earned the No. 2 ranking out of 131 professional team web sites in 2004 in an annual survey conducted by Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal.  Stewart assisted the NFL’s public relations staff at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans and was the AFC public relations representative at the 2000 Pro Bowl in Hawaii while with the Browns.  He also served on the NFL’s Media Policies Committee.

Stewart was the Assistant Director of Public Relations for the Indianapolis Colts from 1991-99, where he helped direct activities between the organization, community and media with major responsibilities focused on writing press releases and producing team publications as well as arranging and coordinating interviews and press conferences.  While with Indianapolis, he worked on the NFL’s public relations staff at Super Bowl XXVII in Los Angeles and at three consecutive AFC Championship Games (1997-99).  The Colts’ public relations staff was presented the 1996 Pete Rozelle Award, an annual honor bestowed to the NFL’s top PR staff as voted by the Pro Football Writers of America.

Stewart, 43, received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Miami (Ohio) in 1988, where he twice received the Miami University Parents’ Council Student Achievement Award for outstanding service to the school.  He worked as a graduate assistant in the sports information department at the University of Tennessee from 1988-90 while also pursuing a master’s degree in communications.   A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Stewart and his wife, Rebecca, have one son, Blake (9).