Andrea Savage - Executive Director
Andrea C. Savage was named as Executive Director of the NESCAC in May of 1999. The appointment, announced by former Middlebury College president John M. McCardell, Jr., was of major significance for the league, as she became the first full-time staff member for the group of 11 institutions since the conference's founding in 1971. As McCardell noted in announcing the hiring of Savage, the conference had "found one of our own, a scholar-athlete who understands our conference's unique combination of academic and athletic excellence, and who will work to maintain the appropriate balance between them while strengthening our ties as member institutions committed to common goals."
Following her appointment, Savage was instrumental in leading the league through the transition to becoming a full-playing conference beginning in 2000 with the introduction of conference scheduling and the creation of an additional 15 conference championships.
Entering her 25th year as the Executive Director for the NESCAC in 2023-24, Savage serves as the chief operating officer and works with the presidents, deans, and athletics administrators in the administration of the conference. She is responsible for promoting the NESCAC mission, upholding the policies and enforcing the rules of the conference, and coordinating conference scheduling, championships, and special events.
Prior to joining the NESCAC in 1999, Savage was a part of the Yale athletics department for eight years beginning in 1991. While with the Bulldogs athletics staff, Savage oversaw 19 intercollegiate programs and was involved in budgeting, scheduling, eligibility and compliance, event management, and served as an admissions and financial aid liaison for a number of teams, including football. She was elevated to Senior Assistant Director of Athletics at Yale in 1996.
A 1986 graduate of Amherst College with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology, Savage was a three-sport athlete in field hockey, squash, and lacrosse who later returned to her alma mater in 1989 as an assistant coach for all three teams. The following year, Savage served as an assistant for the field hockey and lacrosse programs across town at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She went on to receive a master of science degree in sports administration from UMass in 1991.
Savage has lent her experience to various regional and national committees during her career, most recently serving as a member of the executive committee of the Division III Commissioners Association from 2001 through 2003 before aiding the NCAA Interpretations and Legislation Committee from 2005 until 2008. She was also named to the ECAC Board of Directors for a four-year term beginning in 2009.
Savage has also been involved in the coordination of a number of large amateur and professional sporting events – including US and World Cup Exhibition Soccer Games as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the International Special Olympics.
An active member of the Division III Commissioners Association, Savage was recognized by the DIIICA in June of 2019 for 20 years of service to the organization. She is also a member of the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators (NADIIIAA) and Women Leaders in College Sports.
Adele Burk - Associate Director for Championships & Compliance
Phone: 413-587-2102
Email: adele.burk@nescac.com
Adele Burk was promoted to Associate Director for Championships and Compliance in July 2021 after serving as Assistant Director from June 2016 to June 2021. She joined the conference in July of 2013 as the Director of Media Relations.
Burk manages the administration of all conference championships and the use of the NESCAC logo marks, while also providing compliance assistance and education to conference members, handling all licensing requests, and serving as the administrative liaison to the NESCAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the NESCAC Coalition of Student-Athletes of Color (CoSAoC). She also manages conference scheduling across most sports. She is starting her second year as the NCAA Division III Women's Golf Committee Chair after being named to the committee in 2023-24, and has served on the Division III Eligibility Center Advisory Group and as a Division III Men's Golf Regional Advisory Committee member.
In her first three years with the NESCAC, Burk served as the Director of Media Relations for the league, which included oversight of the conference website and social media efforts, compiling conference statistics, managing the conference awards system, and handling all media requests.
Burk joined the NESCAC after having served as the Sports Information Director at Oswego State (NY) for four years. She handled all aspects of media relations needs for the Lakers' 24 sports, including the nationally-ranked men's basketball and ice hockey teams. Burk supervised numerous NCAA Tournament events and served as the liaison between the SUNY Oswego student-run media outlets, the Athletic Department, and the NCAA. She managed a staff of 20 SUNY Oswego students and three interns that conducted in-game operation aspects such as statistics, public address announcing, photography, and scoreboard operation, as well as day-to-day office responsibilities and historical research. Burk maintained and/or edited all content on the Oswego State Athletics website, as well as social media content for the Laker Facebook and Twitter accounts. She also served as the Chair of the Oswego Athletic Hall of Fame Committee and the SUNYAC Sports Information Directors Chair for two years.
Prior to joining the staff at Oswego State, she worked for two years as a Sports Information Assistant at her alma mater, Gustavus Adolphus, where she coordinated media relations for the 2008 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships.
Burk earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Gustavus Adolphus and her Master of Arts degree in sport management from Minnesota State University at Mankato. She is an active member of NADIIIAA, Women Leaders in College Sports, having participated in the 2020 Institute for Administrative Advancement, and the Division III Associate/Assistant Commissioners Group (D3ACG). Burk recently completed the NCAA Pathway Program as a member of the 2023-24 cohort.
Burk is also an active member of Women Leaders in College Sports, and a previous member of Collegiate Sports Communicators. She is a 2020 graduate of the Women Leaders in College Sports Institute for Administrative Advancement. Burk served as a member of the CSC Diversity and Inclusion Committee from 2017-22 and as a District Coordinator for the CoSIDA Academic All-America Program from 2014-21.
Lisa Champagne - Assistant Director for Media Relations
Phone: 413-587-2078
Email: lisa.champagne@nescac.com
Lisa Champagne was named the NESCAC Assistant Director for Media Relations at the start of the 2016-17 season after spending 17 years at the University of Vermont. She oversees the conference's website, social media platforms, weekly and year-end awards, and assists with conference championships.
Champagne held a variety of positions during her tenure at Vermont, joining the staff as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications in 1998 and was promoted to Director of Athletic Communications in May 2005. She was named Director of Social Media and Website Development in September 2015, overseeing the department's social media efforts and working on website enhancement and redesigns, while also serving as the primary media contact for several sports.
While at Vermont, Champagne was involved in the redesign of UVMathletics.com website several times over, introduced new ways of disseminating information about UVM Athletics to the media, fans, and alumni, implemented social media into the athletic department, and initiated webcasting for nearly every sport.
In June of 2018, Champagne co-hosted the ECAC-SIDA Workshop that was held in Burlington, Vermont. In 2013, she was honored with the prestigious Irving T. Marsh Award (university division), by ECAC-SIDA. The award, named after Irving T. Marsh, the ECAC Service Bureau founder and director, is given to a university and college division sports information director who in the opinion of the ECAC-SIDA membership and Executive Board, has exhibited excellence in the field of sports information. Champagne was the seventh woman to receive the honor since its inception in 1966. In 2008, she was honored with the Zabriskie Award for Excellence by the Vermont Athletic Department.
Champagne served as Director of Sports Information at Saint Michael's College for two years before arriving at the University of Vermont. She also spent two years in the sports information office at Quinnipiac University, serving as assistant director for 16 months before being appointed interim director. Prior to her work at Quinnipiac, Champagne was a student assistant in the sports information office at her alma mater, Southern New Hampshire University, for three years.
In addition to her collegiate sports information experience, Champagne has also worked on the international stage. She served as a media relations staff member at Soldier Hollow for the Nordic, biathlon, and Nordic-combined events at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Champagne worked the 1999 and 2003 Women's World Cup, the Special Olympics World Games in 1995, and was a media relations volunteer at the 2004 USGA Women's Open held at the Orchards in South Hadley, Mass.
Champagne gained NCAA Championships experience in a variety of sports at both the Division I and Division II levels and oversaw Vermont's media relations efforts at the 2005 and 2011 NCAA Ski Championships at Stowe, Vt. She also worked with USA Hockey and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to coordinate the media relations effort for the 2012 Ice Hockey Women's World Championships that were hosted by UVM and the City of Burlington.
Champagne earned a bachelor's degree in sport management from Southern New Hampshire in 1994 and a master's degree in business administration from Saint Michael's College in 2001. She was a two-sport athlete at Southern New Hampshire, competing in basketball and softball.
