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A respected member of the Eastern Illinois campus community,
Dr. Gail Richard served as the Panthers Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) from 1994-2011 helping to represent the athletic department on a campus, regional and national level.
For her efforts in that role she was the inaugural winner of the Ohio Valley Conference Thurston Banks Award for Distinguished Academic Service in 2013.
As a FAR, Richard helped EIU go through the NCAA certification process and also make the move from the Mid-Continent Conference to the Ohio Valley Conference. She served on the NCAA Division I Management Council (2004-08), the EIU academic integrity subcommittee for NCAA certification, the EIU presidential task force on athletics and was actively involved with the EIU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Richard served as the head coach for the EIU women’s tennis team in 1984-86 during the early days of the program transitioning from the AIAW ranks to the NCAA Division I level.
As a faculty member she served as Department Chair for Communications Disorders and Sciences, earned a Distinguished Faculty Award and served a term as Chair of the EIU Faculty Senate.
In addition she has assisted the EIU sports information department for parts of four decades as a game basketball statistician and football radio broadcast crew member. Since retiring from EIU as a faculty member in 2004, Richard served as the Director of the Autism Center at Eastern Illinois University and currently resides in Charleston.