Next athletics senior women administrator announced
For the third time in three years, Augustana University has a new senior women administrator.
Madison Peterson is Augustana’s newest associate athletic director for compliance. Peterson most recently served as the assistant athletic director for compliance and operation at Truman State in Missouri, starting in May 2018.
“One of the real joys of my role at Augustana is bringing in talented people like Madison to our team,” athletic director Josh Morton said. “She will be a leader in our department and we’re excited to have the whole Peterson family at Augustana.”
Peterson was also the senior woman administrator for the Truman Bulldogs athletics department.
“I’ve always kept an eye on Augustana because they’re very successful,” Peterson said. “I felt like this would be a good step in the right direction for me professionally, and I like to win.”
Peterson grew up in southwest Iowa and got a scholarship to pitch for the University of South Dakota softball team. She achieved her master’s while working as a graduate assistant for the compliance office at USD.
“I did that for a year, and after I was done with my master’s, I was fortunate enough to get my first job,” Peterson said. “I was the compliance coordinator at the University of North Dakota.”
After a year in Grand Forks, Peterson found herself in a position to take the Truman State job that led her to Augustana.
As the associate athletic director for compliance and the senior women administrator, Peterson is the leading woman in the athletics department. She makes sure that Augustana is compliant in Title IX and gender equity. Peterson is also in charge of all compliance and is a liaison for human resources.
“I was the assistant athletic director at Truman, and now I’m the associate director, but I was still the senior women administrator,” Peterson said. “At Truman, I didn’t have as much of a role within human resources and sports supervision, so those are new things added to my plate.”
Peterson replaces Kimberly Miller, who took a job as the new athletics director at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado.
“[Kimberly] has left us in a very good spot,” Peterson said. “She got us all where we needed to be. We had Haley Covais and Theo Smith in our office to kind of be like the middle people in between the transition, and both of them have done a great job. I’m really thankful for that.”
Peterson officially started at Augustana on Aug. 29.
“It’s been great, it’s definitely been a good fit for me and my family,” Peterson said. “It’s a very good personal fit for me professionally. I really like working with the coaches and administration so far.”
With so few days under her belt and so many athletes and coaches, Peterson has been working hard to become a familiar face.
“My main task is getting to know the student-athletes,” Peterson said. “I’m a very big people person, and in this role, the more you know the student-athletes and what’s going on in their world, the better the relationship works.”
Once Peterson does start getting into her normal routine, Title IX will play a significant role for her. Title IX is difficult to comply with for a school with more female student-athletes than male student-athletes, so Augustana isn’t within full Title IX compliance.
“It’s a very hard task because we want to treat all our student-athletes with a great experience,” Peterson said. “We also have to check and make sure that we stay within regulations, so I don’t have a magic word for that, but it’s a work in progress all the time.”
Peterson said that some of her tasks are in a “to be continued” phase while she focuses on meeting everyone and building relationships.
“I’m extremely excited to be here,” Peterson said. “I can’t wait to meet everyone. I look forward to getting across campus and meeting everybody. I’m just happy to be here.”
