FAIRBANKS - Brock Anundson, the Director of Athletics for the Alaska Nanooks, has named Lena Krutikov the department's next SWA.
"We're thrilled to add the SWA to Lena's new role within athletics." Said Anundson after adding SWA to her title, Assistant Director for Athletics Academic Services, "Her experience across campus, along with her mentorship to our student-athletes has made this enhancement a great fit. Lena's SWA duties will take effect immediately, as she has quickly adapted to her new role within Alaska Nanook athletics."
Krutikov joined the Nanooks this year on Aug. 23. She joined the Nanooks after spending the past 14 years in various positions with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Since October 2022, Krutikov worked with the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities at UAF as the Student CARE and Outreach Coordinator, where she collaborated with campus partners to connect, advocate, refer, and educate (CARE) to meet student's individual needs as well as coordinated and navigated campus resources and community partners. Before working with the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities, she spent the previous seven years working with the Academic Advising Center, two as the Assistant Director and five as an academic advisor. In her time with the Academic Advising Center, Krutikov provided academic support to prospective and current student-athletes, tracked progress toward degree credit requirements for NCAA eligibility, conducted comprehensive advising, career exploration, and degree planning, initiated NCAA waiver requests and academic recovery plans for student-athletes who require additional support.
Alongside her administration and leadership roles, Krutikov has spent time doing Climate Analysis for UAF, worked on the board for the Fairbanks Children's Museum, and has volunteered for Girls on Ice, UAF Science Potpourri, KUAC, Special Olympics, and Relay for Life. Her other stops include working with the Geophysical Institute, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, and The Academy School in Berkeley, California. Krutikov graduated from Colgate University in 1997 with a B.A. in Geology. She was a student-athlete for the Colgate Raiders, where she was a swimmer on the Division I women's swim team. Krutikov also earned a M.S. in Geology from UAF. Krutikov is also fluent in Russian.
The Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) represents the highest-ranking female in each NCAA athletics department or conference office. The purpose of the SWA designation is to promote meaningful representation of women in the leadership and management of college sports. With the SWA designation, it creates opportunities such as enhanced quality of decision-making, resulting from inclusion and diverse perspectives at the campus, conference and national levels. With professional success of the SWA, it results in leadership demographics more reflective of the student-athlete population, it creates visible presence of female role models for student-athletes and staff and creates diverse points of contact on the senior management team for student-athletes and staff to bring issues or concerns.
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