Dr. Katie Gerlach

Biography

Dr. Katie Gerlach joined the Southern Illinois athletics department as the Associate Director of Athletics for facilities and events in August 2019. Her duties were expanded to encompass Senior Associate AD for Operations/Senior Woman Administrator in January, 2021. A native of nearby Sparta, Illinois, Gerlach spent the previous four years at LSU, where she served as the coordinator of external events. At LSU, she coordinated all non-athletic competition events and facility rentals. She assisted with LSU football game day operations and Tiger Stadium tour requests. She also worked with the NCAA softball tournament regionals and super regionals hosted at LSU and was the 2017 SEC Diversity in the Workplace recipient. Prior to LSU, Gerlach worked for two years at Southern Miss as the assistant director of facilities and event management. She was the event administrator for women's basketball, softball and volleyball while assisting with football and men's basketball. She was the event administrator of both the 2014 and 2015 Women's NIT hosted by Southern Miss and assisted with the 2014 Men's NIT administration. She was also the event administrator for two conference championship tournaments. Gerlach earned Academic All-American honors as a member of the John A. Logan softball team before going on to become a 2011 cum laude graduate of Southeast Missouri. She earned her master's degree from Southern Illinois in 2013 and her Ph.D. in higher education from LSU in 2023.