CHICAGO – The UIC Department of Athletics has appointed Chris Masters as Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations.
"I am thrilled to join the UIC family and want to thank Director of Athletics Michael Lipitz and Deputy AD Frank M. Cuervo for this opportunity," said Masters. "We have an amazing collection of passionate, talented and creative professionals on our team who are all dedicated to providing a world-class experience for our outstanding student-athletes, coaches and fans. It's an incredibly exciting time for our department and I'm eager to get started."
In his role, Masters will oversee UIC's communications and marketing units while serving as a member of the department's executive cabinet. He will lead the department's overall messaging, promotional activities and storytelling strategies and manage communications for UIC's men's basketball and women's golf programs. Masters will serve as the department's spokesperson, acting as a liaison with both national and local media.
"Chris is a talented and experienced senior-level administrator who will be a valuable addition to the UIC team," said Deputy Athletics Director Frank M. Cuervo. "I am confident he will make great contributions towards advancing Flames Athletics. I look forward to working with him and welcome the Masters family to UIC."
With more than 20 years of experience as a communications professional, Masters joins UIC after serving seven years at the Big Ten Conference, most recently as Director, Communications. In his role, he was the primary communications point of contact for various Big Ten Conference sports, including most recently women's basketball, volleyball, softball, women's soccer women's tennis and men's gymnastics. Masters oversaw all media operations at the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament, the second-highest attended conference tournament nationwide. Additionally, he supported the conference's communications efforts at the Big Ten Football Championship Game.
During his tenure at the Big Ten, Masters successfully developed and implemented the first two combined women's and men's Big Ten Basketball Media Days in October 2021 and 200, making the conference the first-ever to showcase women's and men's basketball student-athletes and coaches side-by-side with fully equitable branding and coverage. He also spearheaded the creation and execution of the inaugural Big Ten Volleyball Media Days in August 2022, the first-ever in-person preseason media event for volleyball.
Prior to joining the Big Ten, Masters spent 15 years working at Notre Dame as the Associate Athletics Communications Director. In South Bend, he acted the primary media relations contact for nine nationally-ranked Notre Dame sports. Notably, he directed the publicity efforts for the Fighting Irish women's basketball program, which reached the NCAA national championship game four times. Masters played an instrumental role in the publicity and communications efforts surrounding the women's basketball program's 14 All-Americans. He also coordinated the media efforts for the Notre Dame women's soccer program which won the NCAA Women's College Cup in 2010 and finished as national runner-up in 2008. Additionally, Masters served as the media relations coordinator for four NCAA Central Regional Golf Championships.
Before heading to Notre Dame, Masters spent three years at Western Kentucky as an Assistant Sports Information Director, where he was the primary media relations contact for the Hilltoppers' women's basketball and volleyball programs.
Masters has been a member of College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) since 1996 and also holds memberships in the Women's Basketball coaches Association (WBCA), United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). He is currently the chair of the CSC Academic All-America Hall of Fame Committee and has previously served on its Board of Directors as an at-large representative. Masters has earned 25 CoSIDA (CSC) national or regional citations for excellence in publication design and content across multiple sports.
He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism and politics & government from Ohio Wesleyan in 1996 and also completed a master's degree in mass communications at Kansas State in 1998.
Masters and his wife, Laura, are the proud parents of a son, Carson.
