BOSTON – New programming from the America East #3Pillars Academy online digital series takes place on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 9 a.m. Kelly Mehrtens, the Deputy Athletic Director at the University of Maryland, will speak on “Having the Hard Conversation."
The #3Pillars Academy, formerly the Continuing Ed Program, focuses on providing professional development and educational opportunities to administrators and coaches from both inside and outside the conference. The initiative is overseen and organized by the conference’s Senior Woman Administrators.
The #3Pillars Academy initially launched in June of 2014 with the inaugural Continuing Ed Workshop, focused on younger and emerging administrators. It expanded in 2014-15 with an online Digital Series through the use of Google Hangouts and the addition of an Assistant Coaches Workshop last June.
"After our first year of introducing a variety of professional development programming that was met with great success, we decided to more clearly align this effort with the conference's #3Pillars and are excited to formally debut the new #3Pillars Academy next week," said America East Commissioner, Amy Huchthausen.
Mehrtens currently serves as the Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer at Maryland and has over two decades of administrative experience in intercollegiate athletics. During her four years at the University of Maryland, Mehrtens has been responsible for leading both the internal and external operations departments and played a vital role in Maryland’s transition to the Big Ten Conference.
In her first three years, Mehrtens directly supervises nine service units, including sports medicine, strength and conditioning, championships, business operations, facilities, event operations, information technology, human resources and equipment. In addition, Mehrtens served as the sport supervisor for football, men’s lacrosse and the Final Four women's basketball program. As the chief financial officer, Mehrtens was responsible for all aspects of the department's operating budget, contractual agreements and capital projects. In July of 2014, Mehrtens made a seamless transition to overseeing the external operations unit, which includes marketing, digital marketing/social media, communications, and ticket operations.
You can RSVP to the event on the America East's Google + page by clicking here. Attendees are asked to submit questions for Kelly via comments on the Google+ events page, or on social media using the hashtag #3PAcademy.
About America East: The America East Conference provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success through the promotion and nurturing of athletic excellence, academic achievement and leadership, on and off the field.