A legendary name in Millikin Athletics is returning to the department.
Lori Kerans, who led Millikin’s Women’s Basketball team to the NCAA tournament as a player and a national championship as a coach, and was the first female athletic director in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) history, accepted a position as Millikin’s Vice President for Athletics and Community Engagement.
Kerans will help lead Millikin Athletics and work to develop strategies in the areas of enrollment, retention, student success, and fundraising while promoting a winning culture to support student athletes.
“It’s sort of, for me, the blending of two passions that I’ve done for much of my career, just not always in a formal role and certainly not connected in a formal way,” Kerans said.
Kerans won a Millikin record of 556 games as a coach in addition to the 2005 NCAA Division III National Championship.
After retiring as a record-breaking coach in 2018, Kerans became an admissions counselor, where she set records for enrollment for first-year students in Macon County.
“I have always said in my almost four decades of service to the university that I will serve at the pleasure of the president, and I will serve wherever the institution most needs me,” Kerans said. “My goals are to serve students and their families and help celebrate them through the recruitment process, through the graduation process, and into the alumni phase.
“Some of the very best parts of my experience here at Millikin [are] the relationships that you build through [coaching].”
Outside of the Athletic Department, Kerans advocates for breast cancer awareness as a layperson reviewer, which is someone who isn’t an expert in a particular field but is still trusted to give feedback to the professionals, for the Department of Defense.
Kerans has overcome breast cancer twice.
“When you have walked that journey, particularly at a young age, it becomes something that you become passionate about,” she said.
When Kerans is passionate about something, it shows. There’s no one more passionate about Millikin than Kerans.
”It’s a place that I can always know I’ve got unconditional support and love,” Kerans said. “And I want to share that with others. I want students to know that. I want our faculty and staff to know that.
“It feels like family because it’s where you can be vulnerable and grow. It’s where you can inspire and be inspired. It’s where you can share and be a part of a greater good, if you will. So I call Millikin my home, and I call the people here my family.”
