Kelly Landry Mehrtens, who compiled an impressive administrative resume at four institutions after record-setting days as an All-American student-athlete, was named Director of Athletics at UNC Wilmington on July 2, 2007, and began her new post with the Seahawks on Aug. 13, 2007.
A native of Panama City, Fla., Mehrtens spent almost four years in Lawrence, where she served as a key member of KU’s senior administrative team. She oversaw 15 men’s and women’s sports with operating budgets totaling more than $15 million, serving as a highly-efficient manager of high profile revenue and non-revenue sports programs.
In addition to handling numerous senior administrative duties in Lawrence, the 44-year-old Mehrtens established a successful track record in the fund-raising realm. She played a key role on KU’s fundraising team that racked up $19 million in facility improvements. In addition, she helped the Jayhawks increase their annual giving in athletics from $5 million in 2003 to $12 million.
During her administrative career, Mehrtens has truly been an advocate of the student-athlete. She developed KU’s Student-Athlete Development/Leadership Program and worked with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to raise $1 million to help fund women’s sports facilities.
Prior to joining the staff at Kansas, Mehrtens worked in a similar capacity at the University of Illinois. She oversaw all operations for men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, men’s track and field, women’s track and field, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s swimming and softball for the Illini. She also administered game contracts and scheduling for men’s basketball, coordinated post-season travel for men’s and women’s basketball and performed numerous other senior management-level duties, including the creation of a softball program and overseeing construction of a $1.7 million softball facility in Champaign.
From 1992-96, Mehrtens worked as Assistant Athletic Director for Business and Senior Women’s Administrator at the University of Miami. She managed the program’s $20 million budget and was responsible for financial planning and budgets for all of the Hurricane programs.
Prior to her stint in Coral Gables, Mehrtens served as Special Assistant to the Director at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport In Society and as Assistant Athletic Director for Business in NU’s women’s athletics department.
Mehrtens also spent two years as Executive Director of S.M.A.R.T. Sports, Inc., a community-based partnership program to provide mentoring for youth in Miami, Fla., between the Miami and Illinois appointments.
As a student-athlete, Mehrtens enjoyed a successful collegiate career at the University of Alabama. She threw the discus on the women’s track team, collecting All-American honors in 1985 and making the World University Games and Pan American Teams in 1987. She finished fourth in the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Mehrtens earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Commerce and Business Administration from Alabama in 1986 and completed her Master’s Degree in Education from Illinois in 2001.
At KU, Mehrtens was active on the Big 12 Conference and NCAA fronts. She served on the prestigious NCAA Division I Management Council and on the Big 12 Strategic Plan Review Committee and Championships and Awards Committee. She was the Big 12 Administrator’s Council Co-Chair in 2006-07.
Mehrtens has been married to Nicholas Mehrtens III for five years and has two stepdaughters; Marina, 14, and Kayla, 8.
