Stephanie Vardavas

Stephanie Vardavas is an attorney, mediator, writer, product safety/compliance advisor, and an adjunct professor of sports business at the University of Oregon, based in Portland.

As a mediator, she believes passionately that a skilled neutral can support the voluntary resolution of many disagreements that appear intractable at first glance.

She has 40+ years of experience in the sports industry, during which she has worked on deals totaling in the many billions of dollars, led the global product safety and compliance team for the world's biggest sports brand, and managed several global trademark portfolios. Stephanie also led the licensing and merchandising campaign for Nelson Mandela's historic first visit to the United States in 1990 after his release from Robben Island prison.

She holds a B.A. from Yale University in American Studies and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. She is admitted to practice in New York, in Oregon, and before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Stephanie is a library advocate, a Macintosh user, a Baltimore Orioles and Ravens fan, a Star Wars devotee, an active Democrat, a proud union member, a theater enthusiast, an unrepentant Anglophile, and a Life Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. In 2016 she went back to New Haven to study at the Yale Writers Conference, and in 2021 published her first Austenesque novel. In 2008 she was honored to be elected an Obama delegate from Oregon's 3rd District to the Democratic National Convention. At the 2012 convention she was part of the Podium Security detail.

Stephanie served six years as a Commissioner and three years as Chair of the Oregon Commission for Women. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association from 1995 until 2021 and was President of the Friends of Multnomah County Library. She was a founding board member of Emerge Oregon, a nonprofit organization that teaches Democratic women the skills to run for public office. She is a board member of Open Stage Project, introducing girls and non-binary youth to the backstage skilled trades that bring theater to life. She is a cofounder of 6453 Alumni, an association of former Nike employees.

Stephanie owns more than 500 pairs of shoes. None of them are brown.

2013 - present: University of Oregon - Sports Product Management

2012 - present: Law Office of Stephanie J. Vardavas

2011 - 2013: Irenic, LLC

1997 - 2011: Nike, Inc.

1989 - 1997: ProServ, Inc.

1979 - 1989: Major League Baseball