DePauw Stories

If you go to Tiger athletic events or spend any time at the Lilly Center, working out, taking a fitness class, swimming or grabbing a smoothie at Blend, it’s likely that you’ve met Asaundra Pickett. With three job titles, she covers a lot of ground throughout the week.

As assistant athletics director for internal operations, her day-to-day responsibilities of the athletic office and its 23 teams include overseeing budgets, handling transportation, managing facilities and assisting with event planning and marketing.

As director of the Welch Fitness Center, she supervises student workers and manages equipment and fitness classes. For her role as assistant coordinator of strength and conditioning, she helps design workout programs for some of the teams.

What keeps her motivated to do all of the above? “Every day is different,” she says. “I always say, expect the unexpected. And I really like the constant go, go, go in athletics.”

Pickett is in her fifth year at DePauw; she has had the title of assistant athletics director for two. “Athletics has always been a passion of mine, but I didn’t always see myself in an administrative role,” she says. “Because we’re a Division III school, you do a little of everything anyway.”  

She played basketball in high school and also ran track, but an injury during her senior year prevented her from competing in college. “I love sports and couldn’t completely give them up and wanted to do something to help others.”

Pickett earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Illinois State University, where she minored in psychology, and a master’s degree in sports leadership from North Central College in Naperville, Ill.

What keeps Pickett at DePauw? “The people I work with and the opportunity for personal growth.

“I love working in the athletics department with the coaches and Stevie (Baker-Watson, the Theodore Katula director of athletics and recreational sports), but also working with people across campus in the business office, human resources and facilities, whom I have developed great relationships with. Also, one of my values is personal growth, and this job has been a great opportunity for me to grow.”

Aside from cheering on the DePauw Tigers, Pickett has a few other teams she follows. Growing up on the west side of Chicago, Pickett says she’s a fan of all Chicago sports teams – the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs and White Sox – and has been an LA Lakers fan since the years of Magic Johnson.