LAS CRUCES, N.M. – NM State Director of Athletics Mario Moccia announced Tuesday that Dr. Amber Burdge will be joining the Aggie administration on December 1, 2022, as the new Senior Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator.
 
"Amber is an outstanding administrator with the student-first mindset that I was looking for in this position," said Moccia. "She has tremendous experience in several areas of intercollegiate athletics including the valuable perspective of having been both an athletic director and a current member of a Conference USA school. She will be a great asset to our executive team."
 
Dr. Burdge steps into her new role after most recently serving as the Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Success Services at Louisiana Tech University for the past eight years.
 
During her time at the helm, she piloted the Bulldogs and Lady Techsters to exponential academic improvement. As Associate AD, she has seen the Bulldogs and Lady Techsters achieve a 13% increase in total average GPA (2.75-3.12). 
 
Since arriving in Ruston, La., the institution went from four teams on campus with a 3.0 GPA or better to 11 teams meeting that threshold, demonstrating a 150% increase. The number of students named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll has also increased by 43% (160-230) while the number of athletes awarded the C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal more than doubled, going from 27-75.
 
In addition to elevating the academic success of Louisiana Tech student-athletes, Dr. Burdge has also assisted in providing opportunities for athletes to give back to the community. The athletic department has worked to donate over 3,200 books to local elementary schools in the Ruston community and has consistently completed over 1,000 hours of community service each year that she has been in a leadership role.
 
Dr. Burdge also served as the SAAC advisory and helped to establish the Loyal Blue Boxes – a program that has donated over 70 care packages to local patients diagnosed with cancer. She was also recently named an Aspire IChange Fellow and served on the University of Louisiana System Black Male Advisory Council.
 
Prior to her time at LA Tech, Dr. Burdge saw unprecedented success in various roles on numerous other campuses around the country. She has served as the Athletic Director for Neosho Community College where she oversaw 16 sports programs that won six national titles and produced 36 NJCAA All-American accolades and honors.
 
Before that, she worked as a director of student services for Stephen F. Austin and as Assistant Athletic Director for Academics at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. While in Corpus Christi, Texas, she helped increase the number of Islander student-athletes on the Southland Conference Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll from 12 to 58 from fall 2006 to spring 2007.
 
Dr. Burdge, who has also served at Cleveland State University and Oklahoma State University, completed her Bachelor of Science in health at Oklahoma State in 2000 before earning a Master of Science in counseling and student personnel in 2004. She earned her Doctorate of Education in 2020 at Louisiana Tech.