ST. PAUL, Minn. - Macalester College has been awarded the NCAA Division III Ethnic Minority and Women's Internship Grant for the next two years. The grant funding has been utilized to add Katja McKiernan '18 to the Macalester Athletics staff as Athletics Operations Assistant. McKiernan will assist the athletics administration with general operations duties and special projects.

"We are thrilled to welcome Katja back to Macalester College as our new Athletics Operations Assistant," Associate Vice President for Student Affairs/Director of Athletics Donnie Brooks said. "Her love and connection to our community, coupled with the invaluable experience she brings, will greatly enhance our department. The creation of this role through the NCAA Ethnic Minority and Women's Internship grant is particularly special to me and I can't wait to help Katja thrive in this position, just as people supported me when I started my journey in collegiate administration through the same program."

A 2018 graduate of Macalester, McKiernan returns to St. Paul after teaching mathematics and science at Shattuck-St. Mary's School in Faribault, Minn., for six years from 2018 until this spring. She also coached the boys varsity soccer team and was an assistant coach for the girls basketball team. Earlier this year, McKiernan participated in the Professional Sport Experience with the Minnesota Twins, where she shadowed employees in the areas of communications, business intelligence and analytics, player development, ticketing and other roles.

McKiernan was a two-sport student-athlete for the women's soccer and softball teams. She started 46 of her 54 games played as an outside defender and midfielder for the women's soccer team, and played in 66 games as a utility player for the softball team. An applied mathematics & statistics major, McKiernan was named to the Academic All-MIAC team three times in the fall and twice in the spring.

"I am thrilled to be back at Macalester as the Athletics Operations Assistant," McKiernan said. "The Athletics Department has made great strides in the past several years both in its performance from varsity and non-varsity teams and in its other initiatives like Scots LEAD and I can't wait to help it continue to grow in all aspects. I am looking forward to working with and learning from Donnie and the rest of the Athletics staff over the next two years."

The NCAA Division III Ethnic Minority and Women's Internship Grant is designed to provide financial assistance to the division's member schools and conferences that are committed to enhancing ethnic minority and gender representation in entry-level, intercollegiate athletics administrative positions. The internship provides exposure to a variety of areas in collegiate athletics, including but not limited to strategic planning, budget management, fundraising, campus and NCAA compliance, sport oversight, student-athlete welfare issues and initiative, academics, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and staff oversight/management.