Kathy Beauregard

Kathy Beauregard, the Director of Athletics at Western Michigan University, has been involved with the Broncos in several capacities over the course of the past 38 years and is in her 24th season as Athletic Director in 2020-21.

Beauregard is the longest-serving athletic director in the Mid-American Conference and is just one of 10 female athletic directors at the 130 Football Bowl Subdivision schools. In addition to her responsibilities overseeing the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, Beauregard sits on the President’s Senior Leadership Cabinet, assisting WMU President Dr. Edward B. Montgomery as an advisor on his leadership counsel.

Beauregard initially came to WMU in 1979 as head women’s gymnastics coach. In nine seasons (1980-88), she produced two Mid-American Conference (MAC) title teams and was twice named the MAC Coach of the Year.

Western Michigan has seen success on and off the field under Beauregard’s guidance as well facility expansions and upgrades. In total, WMU has won 58 MAC championships (27 female - including two coaching titles, 31 male) and a Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship in hockey. In addition, 35 teams have made NCAA Tournament appearances. The WMU football team has been invited to eight postseason bowls during her tenure, including a New Year’s Six bowl as WMU made an appearance in the 2017 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.

Across all sports, Western Michigan has produced numerous award winners, including All-Americans, Academic All-Americans, a Campbell Trophy and a pair of Wuerffel Trophy recipients, the Division I National Scholar-Athlete of the Year in men's soccer, the CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year in men’s soccer and collected countless conference honors.

Beauregard herself has received multiple awards in recognition of her outstanding service and leadership. Most recently, in June 2019, Beauregard was appointed to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Task Force on Women in Sports. The Task Force will act in an advisory capacity to the governor and will assess the history of and current landscape for girls and women in sports in Michigan. The Task Force will be dissolved in June 2022.

In September 2018, Beauregard was named a "Game Changer: Women in Sports Business” by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. She has also been bestowed the Gerald R. Ford Sportsman of the Year Award, presented by the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame; the Lifetime Woman of Achievement Award, presented by the YWCA of Kalamazoo; the Under Armour Award from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics; being named Athletic Director of the Year for the Football Subdivision in the Central Region by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics; the Athena Award from the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce; the “Glass Ceiling Award” from the Kalamazoo Network; an induction into the Kalamazoo Loy Norrix High School Athletic Hall of Fame; and Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater Hope College.

The Bronco football program soared to new heights in 2016, going undefeated during the regular season with a 13-0 record and making an appearance in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl as the Group of 5 champion, becoming the first MAC school to participate in the bowl. It was just the second time a MAC school had been invited to a New Year’s Six bowl. Western Michigan earned its first top 25 ranking and finished the season No. 15 in the Associated Press poll. WMU also became just the second MAC school to host ESPN College GameDay, as the crew took over the lawn in front of Sangren Hall to preview the Western Michigan versus Buffalo matchup on Nov. 19. In total, the 2016 football season brought the university and athletic department over $80 million in media exposure. The Bronco hockey team also had its share of success, finishing the 2016-17 season ranked No. 10, as WMU had two major men’s programs ranked in the top 15 in the nation.

For the first time in school history, Western Michigan was named the winner of the 2016-17 MAC Institutional Academic Achievement Award. WMU posted an overall athletic grade-point average (GPA) of 3.253 for the 2016-17 academic year based on 398 students in 15 MAC sports. WMU has continued its run of success since 2016-16, capturing another MAC Institutional Academic Achievement Award in 2019-20.

Eight times since 2007-08, and for four consecutive years, Western Michigan has received the MAC’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) Men’s Academic Achievement Award. The FAR Awards are designed to recognize the conference institution with the overall highest GPA rank by gender.

Under Beauregard, Bronco student-athletes have posted 24 consecutive semesters of a combined overall GPA above 3.00. The student-athlete population, in any given year, ranges from between 350-400 students.

WMU athletic facilities have greatly improved under Beauregard’s leadership. The $8-million Bill Brown Football Alumni Center and the $21-million Seelye Athletic Indoor Center have benefited numerous sports teams and provide top-notch facilities for Bronco student-athletes. Since 2013 alone, more than $3 million has been invested in the Bill Brown football facility to update the team room, weight room, hallways, wall décor, coaches offices and suites.

Other major facility projects over the last decade include $2.2 million into the renovation of Hyames Field at Robert J. Bobb Stadium, the transformation of Baker Field into the WMU Soccer Complex, replacement of the indoor track in Read Fieldhouse, the replacement of the outdoor surface at Kanly Track, locker room updates to Lawson Ice Arena, a new basketball court at University Arena, men’s basketball locker room expansion and upgrade, as well as the installation of video boards at Lawson Ice Arena, University Arena and Waldo Stadium, which features a main video board and two auxiliary videoboards. The Waldo Stadium video boards total $2 million.

During the spring of 2012, Beauregard was presented with the 2012 YWCA Lifetime Achievement Award, given to a woman in the community who has demonstrated a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the well-being of the community, state or nation, and has a record of accomplishment, leadership and positive role modeling as a volunteer and/or in a career.

Following the 2010-11 year Beauregard was recognized by National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) at the national convention, receiving the Under Armour Award and was named the Athletic Director of the Year for the Football Subdivision in the Central Region by NACDA.

In 2010-11, Western Michigan captured the MAC Jacoby Trophy, recognizing the most successful women’s athletic program overall. The Broncos also finished second in MAC Reese Trophy voting (the men’s athletics equivalent of the Jacoby) in 2010-11. Those two milestones along with WMU’s success in the classroom and in the Kalamazoo was reason enough for the MAC to award Western Michigan the Cartwright Award during the fall of 2011.

Heavily involved in her profession, Beauregard assumed the chair position of the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee in 2001, a position she held for two years. She represented the Broncos as a member of the NCAA Championships Cabinet and NCAA Football Bowl Certification Committee and has also served on the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Western Michigan won the Jacoby Cup Trophy in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Under Beauregard’s direction, WMU also won its 100th MAC title all-time in 2005-06. In just her second year (1998-99), Beauregard provided support which helped the Bronco men’s athletic squads jump from 10th to first place in the Reese Cup standings, giving Western Michigan a share of its first men’s all-sports trophy in 17 years.

Previously the senior associate athletic director (1993-97), Beauregard supervised all revenue sports, the University’s compliance with NCAA rules, academic services, student-athlete welfare and athletic marketing and communications.

Beauregard has been active in numerous community service organizations, including the American Cancer Society, Go Red for Women, the American Heart Association, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Glowing Embers Girl Scouts Council and the Boys & Girls Club.

Beauregard is a native of Kalamazoo and graduate of Loy Norrix High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Hope College in 1979 and a master’s degree from Western Michigan in 1981.