America East Announces Staff Changes As 2012-13 Academic Year Approaches - AmericaEast.com
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — America East Commissioner Amy Huchthausen announced today changes to the conference staff for the 2012-13 academic year, including three hires and three promotions.
Kelly Powers will join America East as the Assistant Director for Administration, while Bryan Geary and John Lukach will come on board as interns for the upcoming year. Additionally, Matt Bourque and Shonna Brown were each promoted to Senior Associate Commissioner and Chad Dwyer was elevated to Assistant Commissioner for Championships.
“These moves strengthen our conference staff and will help us achieve our goal of providing the highest level of service to our membership,” said Huchthausen.
Powers, who will begin at America East in early August, will assist with office management and business operations as well as provide administrative support to conference staff. He will also provide support at various championships and coordinate special events in his new role. Powers comes to the conference office out of Transylvania University where he graduated from in May. A men’s soccer student-athlete as an undergraduate, he served as a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representative and was Co-Chair for two years. Powers also worked in Transylvania’s athletic department for four years, gaining experience as a student office assistant.
Geary will join the conference as its Communications and Administration Intern for the 2012-13 year. He will serve as the primary communications contact for several sports, and also assist with maintenance of the conference’s website, AmericaEast.com, as well as its social media and video initiatives. Geary comes to the conference office from Saint Michael’s College, where he graduated from in May. A baseball student-athlete and SAAC representative there, Geary interned in the University of Vermont athletic communications office and was the social media and marketing intern for the Colchester Cannons as an undergraduate.
Lukach comes in as the Video and New Media Intern and will serve as the conference’s video coordinator, producing original video content for AmericaEast.com and its other entities, including features, highlight packages and promos and will also contribute to the league’s social media initiatives. Lukach, a graduate of the University of Akron (BA ‘10, MA ‘12), spent the last two years as a graduate assistant at Akron operating Zips Vision, the school’s video board system, and overseeing the athletic department’s video streaming operations in several sports. Lukach and Geary will both start August 1.
Bourque has been with America East since 1997, first as Assistant Commissioner, before being promoted to Associate Commissioner in 2005. In his role, Bourque oversees all external relations including marketing and promotions, licensing, communications and corporate partnerships. He also directs the conference’s basketball operations, including scheduling and the administration of the America East Men’s & Women’s Basketball Championship.
Brown came to the conference office in 2010 as Associate Commissioner and also served as Interim Commissioner in 2011. In her role, Brown oversees the conference’s internal operations, including oversight of the operating budget as well as championships and sport administration. A member of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, Brown is the league’s primary liaison for women’s basketball.
Dwyer, previously the Director of Championships, came to America East in 2008 and has oversight of conference championships and is a primary administrative liaison for several conference sports. In that role, he coordinates regular-season scheduling and policies, and manages conference championships.
ABOUT THE AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE:
Into its third decade of operation, America East has evolved into one of the most comprehensive NCAA Division I conferences with a commitment to broad-based, competitive athletics programs, complementing the academic integrity and missions of the member institutions. Progressive in its approach to its more than 3,400 student-athletes, America East recognizes champions in each of its 20 sports and also conducts the nation’s most comprehensive academic recognition program for student-athletes. With a geographic footprint covering the Mid-Atlantic to Northeast regions of the United States, America East strives to develop champions in academics, athletics and leadership at its nine member institutions: University at Albany, Binghamton University, Boston University, University of Hartford, University of Maine, UMBC, University of New Hampshire, Stony Brook University and University of Vermont.