UC Irvine news and notes

PAULA SMITH APPOINTED INTERIM ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman has appointed Paula Smith as UC Irvine’s interim Director of Athletics following the departure of Michael Izzi to Cal State Northridge. Izzi will hold a similar position there.

Smith, who has served as UCI’s Deputy Athletic Director since 2012, also acted as UCI’s interim Director of Athletics from August 2007 to February 2008.

Smith is in her 13th year with the Anteaters and is a member of the Athletic Department’s senior management team as well as serving on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics.

In conjunction with the Director of Athletics, she provides leadership and assistance for Department staff’s compliance within the department, campus, conference, NCAA, and government rules, regulations, and policies.

Smith also provides administrative supervision of UCI’s athletic programs and serves as the university’s Senior Woman Administrator to the NCAA and Big West Conference.

In addition to her UC Irvine duties, Smith was selected to serve on the NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Committee, beginning in September 2013 and concluding in September 2017.  Over the past 25 years, Smith has served on several national committees, most recently the NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee and Council.

A national search will be conducted for the next Director of Intercollegiate Athletics., according to UCI officials.

ANTEATER DUO NAMED WGCA ALL-AMERICAN SCHOLARS

The Women’s Golf Coaches Association  announced Avery French and Jacqui Ngo were named All-American Scholars.

The Anteater duo were among the 1,011 women’s collegiate golfers recognized with this prestigious honor.  The criteria for selection to the All-American Scholar Team are some of the most stringent in all of college athletics, needing a minimum cumulative GPA is 3.50.

French, who was named UCI’s Big West Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, just graduated with her second master’s degree in Demographic and Social Analysis. Her first master’s degree was in Accountancy as she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2017.

Ngo, a junior business information management major, has the highest grade point average on the team.