June 4, 2024 - UMSL Athletic Director Lori Flanagan Announcement
Dear UMSL Colleagues,
We want to share news of the retirement of longtime Director of UMSL Athletics Lori Flanagan who first joined the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 2006 as Associate Director of Athletics after serving as Senior Associate Director of Athletics at Saint Louis University. She quickly rose to the position of Director of Athletics in 2009 – the fourth Athletic Director in UMSL’s history and one of only a few female Athletic Directors in collegiate athletics. Throughout her 18 years at UMSL, Lori has developed UMSL Athletics into one of the nation’s premier NCAA Division II programs.
Her record speaks for itself. Under her leadership at UMSL, she reinstated men’s and women’s swimming and launched the addition of men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s track and field. She garnered necessary investments to build high-quality and competitive athletic facilities and infrastructure – most recently opening the doors to the new Student-Athlete Academic Commons through the support of alumni Terry and Stan Freerks.
Competitively, she and her amazing staff have accomplished much during her tenure:
Not only that, 354 student-athletes received All-Conference Honors across all sports during her tenure as well as 67 who went on to earn All-American Honors. And importantly, 1,650 student-athletes received Academic All GLVC Honors.
Throughout her career at UMSL, Lori has generously shared her talents each day to transform the lives of our student-athletes with a laser-focused commitment on cultivating students by promoting academic excellence, strong character, sound ethics and fair play. For her many contributions to UMSL, she was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal in February.
We are thankful for Lori’s service and are committed to continuing the foundational work she has led to elevate UMSL Athletics and our university community. To that end, we will begin work to launch an executive search. Lori has graciously agreed to continue in her role until this important executive search is finalized.
Please join us in thanking Lori for her tremendous contributions to the University of Missouri–St. Louis community.
Sincerely,
Kristin Sobolik
Chancellor
Reggie Hill
Vice Chancellor for Strategic Enrollment and Career Advancement
