Florida Tech Esports and its collaboration with the university’s Behavioral Performance Coaching (BPC) Program made a strong impression at the 2025 National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) convention in July. Savannah Wilson ’23, a master’s student studying applied behavioral analysis and organizational behavior management, was one of five recipients of the convention’s Student Leadership Award.
The Student Leadership Award is given to select students who demonstrate exceptional leadership among their peers with outstanding contributions to their collegiate esports community. Wilson has spent the last two and a half years working with BPC to help improve coaching for esports and athletics.
Also representing Florida Tech: Anna Patterson was nominated for Assistant Director of the Year; Kaitlynn Gokey, assistant professor of behavioral analysis, was nominated for Educator of the Year; and the BPC program, run by Gokey and James Riswick-Estelle, M.S., was nominated for Advocate of the Year.
Wilson serves as the project manager for BPC—a long-standing collaboration at Florida Tech between the School of Behavior Analysis, esports and athletics. The unique program cultivates and supports an active and ongoing collaboration between esports and the science of behavior that aims to improve competitive performance while giving behavioral analysis students powerful out-of-classroom experiences.
In almost three years, Wilson has helped develop frameworks that provide systematic support to student athletes. She also helps esports players increase productive communication in-game.
“I feel beyond honored to be recognized in such a way. The work I have done has always been with the goal of our esports student-athletes being as supported as possible so that they can perform at their best,” Wilson said in a statement. “Seeing the benefits that they reap from my work has been all the reward I need.”
“The express purpose of the BPC program since its founding has been to provide diverse work experience opportunities to students where there were previously very few, enhance competitive performance and to spread and disseminate behavioral science,” Gokey and Riswick said. “The nomination of the program and its staff is an incredible testament to the work the BPC program has been doing since its founding.”
