Arkansas State Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Bowen announced in August that Lydia Placzek has been named Associate Athletics Director for Student Services.
Placzek, a member of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A) and Women Leaders in College Sports, comes to A-State after most recently spending the last seven years in multiple roles at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She spent the last four years with the Roadrunners as an assistant athletic director for academic services after serving as an athletics academic coordinator from 2014 through March of 2017.
Placzek worked primarily with the UTSA football team, including in 2018 when the program produced the top Graduation Success Rate (GSR) among all public institutions within the state of Texas. She served on the curriculum team for the Roadrunner Leadership and Professional Development Academy, while also developing a predictive model for graduation, retention and favorable Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers.
Prior to her time in San Antonio, Placzek was a student-athlete affairs liaison and accounting technician at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for 14 months from May of 2013 through July of 2014. Her time with the program was spent working with both the business department and academics, as well as all aspects of student-athlete experience and development.
The Kearney, Neb., native started her professional career in collegiate athletics an assistant equestrian coach at Kansas State University from 2012-13, helping the Wildcats successfully climb the ranks to become Reserve National Champions in the western discipline.
Placzek earned both her bachelor’s degree in agricultural business and master’s degree in counseling and human resource development from South Dakota State University.
