Name: Kate Tiller

Hometown: Kershaw, South Carolina

Education: B.A. in Political Science and M.P.A., both from the College of Charleston

Job title: Senior Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Success/Senior Woman Administrator; I’m also currently serving as the chair of the Staff Advisory Committee to the President.

How long have you worked at the College? Fifteen years, unless you include my student employment (shoutout to New Student Programs), which makes it about 18 years.

What are your job responsibilities? I oversee departments within athletics that contribute to student-athlete success – Student-Athlete Academic Services, Sports Medicine and mental health initiatives, Sports Performance, Sports Nutrition and The Charleston Edge. I am the sport administrator for our soccer programs, sailing, equestrian, and our volleyball programs. As a member of our department’s senior leadership team, I also get to engage in many other areas that impact the student-athlete experience.

What do you like most about your job? The student-athletes and getting to make an impact on their experience at Charleston.

What question do you get asked most in your job and what’s your typical answer?

Q: What’s your favorite sport?

A: Any sport in which a Cougar student-athlete is competing.

What’s your favorite location on campus and why? This is such a hard question. … TD Arena on a sold-out game day is pretty hard to top, though!

What are your hobbies? I really do love supporting our athletic teams, so going to CofC sporting events is among my hobbies. I also love that I get to do this now with my father, who is a retired public educator and lives in Charleston now.

What personal and/or professional accomplishment are you most proud of? There is nothing better than watching our student-athletes cross the Cistern; specifically, our department’s most recent graduation success rate (GSR) was 92%.

Name a creative work (book, movie, performance, etc.) you enjoyed recently – why? A book I loved recently was Maybe, a children’s book by Kobi Yamada, gifted to me by Amy Seago (head coach of track and field and cross-country). It is all about “the endless potential in all of us,” and I live by the idea that, with the right motivation, everyone can make a positive impact.

What was your favorite TV show growing up? The West Wing

What’s next on your bucket list? Win in the first round of a NCAA tournament game!

What is something your campus colleagues would be surprised to know about you? How much I DID NOT know about sports when I started in athletics and how much I’ve learned about sports in my 15 years in the department. I didn’t even have ESPN at home until recently.

What was your first job? My first job after graduation was as an administrative assistant in New Student Programs – I started the Monday after I graduated!

What’s your favorite Lowcountry restaurant? How could I possibly name just ONE?

Describe your perfect day: A perfect day for me often includes sunrise at Folly, followed by brunch, usually at Rita’s … and topping it off with a Cougar win by any of our teams only makes it sweeter.

To nominate a faculty or staff member to be featured in the “CofC Faces to Know” series, please send the person’s name and email address to facstaffnews@cofc.edu. Please include “CofC Faces to Know” in the email subject line.