Nicole Watkins joined the Purdue University Northwest athletic department in July 2014 as Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information, Marketing, and Event Management at Purdue Calumet.
The Medina, Ohio, native, has transformed PNW Athletics' visibility in both the traditional media and social media in her short time with the Pride.
In July 2016, Watkins was named the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference's Sports Information Director of the Year for her efforts.
Purdue Northwest's social media outlets have exhibited a sharp rise, as Twitter (+144%); Facebook (+117%), and Instagram (253%) all experienced exponential growth in Watkins’ first two years as sports information director. The creation of post-game graphics, videos, and more — plus the inclusion of social media training for student-athletes to encourage proper use and engagement — has skyrocketed the PNW brand into the social media world. The addition of embedded video highlights/feature pieces into the Peregrines’ Facebook page also produced more than 30,000 views over the course of a six-month period from December to June 2016.
Under Watkins’ direction in 2015-16, Purdue Calumet captured its third and fourth-ever CoSIDA Academic All-American award, after being awarded its first two in her first year as SID in 2014-15. Even more, the Peregrines made history by landing the 2016 At-Large CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year in senior tennis player Lori Haas. In 2015-16 alone, Purdue Calumet landed 13 NAIA Daktronics Scholar-Athletes, one NAIA Third Team All-American, 12 all-CCAC players, nine CCAC Player of the Weeks, and in 2014-15, earned its first-ever NAIA Player of the Week. In the NAIA SIDA Publications and Media Contest results, Purdue Calumet placed in the top 10 in six contest categories, led by its Best Cover in the Winter Brochure category and third-place finish in the Feature Stories category for Watkins’ feature piece on Hall of Fame inductee Sandy Love-Todd.
Watkins served as the NAIA-SIDA contest coordinator for the Splash Pages/Wallpaper category in 2015-16 and recently volunteered to be a part of the CCAC Executive Committee for 2015-16. Watkins also serves on the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee as a District Coordinator, a position she’s held for three years.
Purdue Calumet’s video product grew exponentially in 2015-16, led by the creation of the student-run, upgraded, two-camera, high-definitiion video streaming product of volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball home games. Through Watkins’ leadership, the athletic department teamed up with the university’s communication department to pair classroom credit with hands-on experience in streaming a high-quality video product with Stretch Internet. In addition, the revamped video product included post-game highlights, pre-game features, coach interviews, publicity videos, and more, leading to a 235 percent growth in the Peregrines’ YouTube channel views and Stretch Internet live view growth of 104 percent in just 12 months.
Watkins was also a major leader in the selection and creation of the Pride mascot for Purdue Northwest, and served as the primary point person in the redesign of PNWathletics.com. She also serves the brand manager for the new PNW athletic logos and has been the primary force in the redesign of uniforms, faciltiies, apparel, and more.
Watkins joined the Pride after spending most of 2013 as a sports information graduate assistant at NCAA Division III Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. The former sports journalist brings a wealth of experience in the sports media field after making stops as the sports editor of the Polk County Itemizer-Observer in Dallas, Ore., as well as her five-year stint as a sports reporter for the MLive Media Group-owned Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette.
While at Rose-Hulman, Watkins played a significant role in the athletic department’s rise in the realm of social media, helping the athletic department’s YouTube (+10,500 views), Twitter (+512 followers) and Facebook (+658 followers) platforms grow exponentially. Watkins produced feature videos, media guides, stories, graphics, photographs and game recaps for all 21 of RHIT’s varsity sports, as well as served as the primary contact for men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball, and softball. The Fightin’ Engineers department as a whole also had one of its most successful seasons to date, Rose-Hulman captured the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Commissioner’s Cup, the Men’s All Sports Trophy and had the distinction of every eligible varsity team qualify for its conference tournament.
She was also a primary member of the design team in the current implementation of Rose-Hulman’s new athletic website, set to launch in August 2014.
During her time at the Itemizer-Observer, Watkins earned several awards in her first year as the sports editor, including Rookie of the Year for the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) of Oregon and Southwest Washington, where she also earned first place for Best Sports News Story and second place for Best Column for weekly newspapers with a circulation under 8,000. She was also named the 2012-13 Oregon Wrestling Coaches Association Media Person of the Year.
In the 2013 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest, Watkins helped the Itemizer-Observer take home 27 total awards to earn the state's top honor, the Elmo Smith Award for General Excellence among weeklies in Oregon with a circulation of 3,001 or more. In that contest, she earned first place for Best Sports Photo; second place for Best Sports Story and Best Enterprise Reporting; and third place for Best Writing and Best Local Column Writing. On the national level, Watkins earned first place for Best Sports Column among daily and non-daily newspapers with a circulation under 8,000 in the National Newspapers Association 2013 Better Newspaper Contest.
While at the Kalamazoo Gazette , Watkins served as the primary beat writer for more than 40 high schools for the sports of girls basketball, softball and volleyball, and covered such events as the Big League Softball World Series along with game day coverage of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers.
Prior to her time in the journalism field, Watkins earned four varsity letters as a shooting guard for the NCAA Division I Western Michigan University women’s basketball team, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree in fine art photography.
Watkins completed her master’s degree program in sports management through Indiana State University in December of 2015.
