Barb Kowal, who in June was named the College Sports Information Directors of America’s first communications director, has been elevated to director of external affairs.

In her expanded role, Kowal will oversee marketing, branding and convention planning, in addition to her previous duties.

“Barb now brings a daily focus to communications, marketing, branding and convention planning that CoSIDA hasn’t had in the past,” said CoSIDA President Justin Doherty of Wisconsin.

Doherty said the July retirement of CoSIDA’s long-serving marketing director Ed Carpenter prompted the organization’s board to reallocate staff functions and duties.

“That evaluation led us to ask Executive Director John Humenik to take on more responsibility with regard to fund-raising duties that Ed had overseen,” Doherty said. “As a result, the board was in a position to significantly change the focus of Carpenter’s allocated staff position from fully fund-raising to other areas. We decided that it was best to have Barb, who has impressed us in her short time as communications director, take on these duties with an expanded role.”

“Internally, we want to help athletics communicators grow in their professional positions and deal effectively with the pressing issues in our ever-changing communications world,” Kowal said. “Externally, CoSIDA continues to build strong relationships with key athletics administrators, partners and constituents who help us advance shared objectives.” 

Before joining the CoSIDA staff, Kowal had served as assistant director of athletics/media relations at Texas from 1997-2008. Before that, Kowal served as senior associate director of athletics communications at Connecticut (1985-97) and was the first full-time SID at Division III Manhattanville for three years. 

“With John in place as executive director since March 2008, we finally had someone to concentrate on leading our organization and profession on a daily basis,” Doherty said. “The board believes we now have two leaders in place to concentrate daily on CoSIDA business – which in the past volunteers and part-time staff did their best to coordinate. John has taken us to another level of growth and outreach since coming aboard, and we believe that Barb’s experience and expertise can continue to elevate our organization to yet another level.”