Megan O'Quin, with more than 15 years of working with collegiate student-athletes, has joined the Eastern Washington University athletic department as its new Associate Athletic Director for Academic Success, Director of Athletics Lynn Hickey has announced.
 
O'Quin has most recently worked in similar capacities at Fresno State, Northern Illinois and Oregon State, and earned both her bachelor's degree and master's degrees from OSU. She is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership.
 
"When I started working with student-athletes in the summer of 2003, I knew that this was an amazing career path," O'Quin said. "I wanted to pursue every opportunity to grow professionally, to not only help student-athletes be successful but to graduate as well."
 
"We are very excited to add Megan to our executive staff and to continue our progress in improving resources for our student-athletes," said Hickey. "Eastern Athletics has a long history of our students achieving in the classroom and this is an additional step to further prioritize academics and student development for our students.  We are looking forward to utilizing her expertise to assist our current staff in student advising and programming so that we are offering our students a holistic championship experience. "
 
O'Quin began her career in 2003 at Oregon State in the athletic department's academic support area. She became a counselor a year later and remained in that role until August of 2014. She served the sports of football, women's gymnastics, wrestling, softball, swimming and women's basketball.
 
Her counseling included academic advising of student-athletes on progress towards degree completion, academic standing and other aspects to assist with maintaining NCAA eligibility and excelling in the collegiate environment. She spent time helping programs raise and maintain the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR), and served on numerous campus committees.
 
She then moved on to Northern Illinois as Associate Director for Student-Athlete Academic Support Services, and held that position until January of 2017. She provided leadership and assisted with supervision, training and performance evaluation of the department's academic coordinators and administrative staff.  She was responsible directly for the academic advising for men's and women's basketball.  Among her many duties, she also supervised the school's Life Skills Program.
 
O'Quin moved from Illinois to Fresno State in January of 2017 and spent two years there as Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Services. She managed the oversight of academic and student services for the department while supervising six full-time academic advisors and three part-time employees.
 
She was active on numerous athletic department and campus committees, also she worked specifically in academic counseling, advising, life skills, career preparation and community service.
 
She established an academic program at Fresno State which produced on average the highest recorded academic year in the school's history. Included were the most Mountain West Athletic Conference Academic Scholars and the highest team great point averages and APR numbers. 
 
"It has become important to me through my career to establish a positive and welcoming environment for student-athletes and coaches," O'Quin said. "By keeping an open door policy, it allows others to feel comfortable coming to me with problems or questions, so I may assist with helping them to solve their issue. This positive atmosphere allows the student-athletes to take academics seriously and have more confidence in the work they do."
 
"Some student-athletes come to college not believing in themselves as students and only want to focus on athletics. In my opinion, it is my responsibility to support the student-athletes by helping them develop a stronger self-esteem in the classroom, and as a result, earn a college degree they may not thought was not possible," she continued.  "It is important to support all student-athletes by providing them the necessary opportunities and support to develop and grow."
 
O'Quin was chosen to participate in the N4A Professional Development Institute-Future Leaders, and has been a longstanding member of the National Association for Athletic Academic Advisors. She participated in the Big Ten and Big East Women's Sports Leadership Symposium in 2015.
 
Originally from Tigard, Ore., O'Quin received her bachelors of science degree in liberal studies with a minor in sociology and athletic administration from Oregon State in 2003. She received her master's in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration on adult education, ethnic studies and sociology from OSU in 2011. She is working toward her doctorate at Fresno State.
 
O'Quin's husband, Jason O'Quin, is Director of Events at Fresno State.