Nicole Hager

Title

Deputy Director of Athletics / SWA
Email

nhage01s@uis.edu
Phone

217-206-8570

Nicole Hager was promoted to Deputy Director of Athletics at the University of Illinois Springfield in 2025. In this expanded leadership role, she continues to serve as the department’s Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) while overseeing academic advising for all undergraduate student-athletes, with a particular focus on supporting first- and second-year students. She also serves as the primary athletics liaison to several key campus partners that enhance the student-athlete experience.

Hager rejoined UIS Athletics in 2024 as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Academics and Compliance, marking her return to the Prairie Stars after previously leading student-athlete academic support services from 2014–21. During that time, she developed advising programs, academic support initiatives, and retention strategies for 17 NCAA Division II sports.

From 2021–24, Hager worked in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences as Program Coordinator and Advisor for English, History, and Liberal Studies. She also served as Interim Program Coordinator and Advisor for Criminology & Criminal Justice, Sociology/Anthropology, and for the African American Studies and Women & Gender Studies minors. Additionally, she has served as Coordinator of the First-Year Seminar since 2021.

Before her career at UIS, Hager spent eleven years as a professor at Robert Morris University, gaining extensive experience in student success initiatives, honors program advising, teaching, assessment, and co-curricular development.

Hager holds both a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Illinois Springfield and completed Ph.D. work in American Literature at St. Louis University.

She lives in Springfield with her husband, Peter, and their daughter, Caroline.