Hall of Fame
Richard served as the Panthers Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) from 1994 through 2011, helping to represent the athletic department on a campus, regional and national level. For her efforts in that role she was one of the inaugural winners of the OVC’s 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 OVC. 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).
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 2014, Richard served as the Director of the Autism Center at Eastern Illinois University and currently resides in Charleston. EIU now has an annual award for a student-athlete named the “Dr. Gail Richard Sportsmanship Award.” It is presented to an athlete that has portrayed the qualities of sportsmanship not in their sport but also in the community and been a successful student in the classroom.