NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State University Director of Athletics Melody Webb announced Wednesday the hiring of Mike Hermann as the Spartans' new Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations. He will oversee facilities operations, marketing, communications and corporate relations, as well as serve as the sport supervisor for the men's and women's basketball programs. 

Hermann, a collegiate athletics veteran with more than 30 years of experience, comes to NSU after serving as Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations at Old Dominion University. At ODU, Hermann oversaw media relations, marketing, ticket sales strategies, creative and video services and was the liaison to the corporate sales team. 

Hermann has a wide breadth of collegiate administrative experiences at several different levels, including 18+ years as an athletics director. Prior to ODU, Hermann served six years as Director of Athletics at Kansas Wesleyan. In 2015, Kansas Wesleyan promoted him to the role of Vice President & Director of Athletics.

The athletics program enjoyed success on and off the field during Hermann's tenure. The program earned 26 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference titles, including six in his final year. Fourteen students earned Academic All-America honors through the College Sports Information Directors (CoSIDA) program and the average GPA for the teams was regularly above the 3.00 mark. Hermann was named the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics NAIA Athletic Director of the Year for 2018-19, and was also named the KCAC Athletic Director of the Year.

Prior to his time at Kansas Wesleyan, Hermann spent four years as the Associate Athletic Director for External Relations at Seattle University. Earlier in his career, Hermann served four years as athletics director at Towson and nine at Niagara, in addition to stints as Associate AD at Xavier and Assistant Commissioner at the Horizon League. He got started in college athletics as the Sports Information Director at Wright State.

Hermann holds a Bachelor of Arts from John Carroll University and a Master of Arts from Kent State University. He and his wife, Paula, have two sons: Alex, a graduate of the University of San Diego, and Andrew, a graduate of Xavier University.