Nick Garner joined WSU Athletics in December 2021. In August, 2022, Nick was elevated to Director of Student-Athlete Innovation. He currently is responsible for personal branding, entrepreneurship, and name, image, and likeness education. In his previous role of Student-Athlete Development and Alumni Engagement Coordinator, Nick was responsible for the coordination of career development and community engagement as part of the Cougar Pursuit program. He also coordinated engagement with Cougar alumni and oversee employer relations.
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Nick previously served as the Assistant Coordinator of Character Formation within the Baylor Student-Athlete Center for Excellence. In his role, he oversaw the community engagement pillar through the coordination of all service initiatives for Baylor Athletics. Nick also oversaw the creation of the Baylor Built+ NIL learning modules for student-athletes, educating student-athletes how to navigate the new Name, Image, and Likeness business landscape safely and successfully. In addition to serving as the co-career coach for Acrobatics & Tumbling, Baseball, Equestrian and Football Defense, Nick has developed and facilitated career and leadership programming and served as a teacher for the student-athlete Strategic Learning course. Nick also serves on the Golden Bruisers, External Engagement, Scholarship and Awards, and Student-Athlete Recognition committees.
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Prior to that, Nick was a Student-Athlete Enhancement graduate assistant for the Office of Student-Athlete Development at West Virginia University from 2019-2021. In that role, he oversaw community engagement opportunities, career programming, financial literacy education, and developed the Mountaineer Leadership Institute. Specifically, he served as the Student-Athlete Enhancement liaison to Gymnastics, Golf, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving, and Wrestling. Nick also served on the Every Mountaineer Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and served as co-advisor to SAAC.
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From 2018-2019, Nick served as a Community Engagement and C.A.T.S. Life Skills intern for Arizona Athletics. He organized all community engagement opportunities for student-athletes in addition to assisting with all career and leadership programming.
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Nick received a bachelor's degree in marketing with certificates in civic leadership and sport management from the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona in 2018. He later earned a master's degree in sport management from West Virginia in 2021.
