Angie Torain Takes on Diversity in Notre Dame Athletics

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The Black Lives Matter movement, so prominent in the wake of George Floyd's death in May, has created within college athletic departments an urgency to emphasize diversity like never before. Within the past two months, the University of Iowa, Syracuse and Pitt have announced personnel maneuvers on the diversity front. In Kansas alone, three schools — KU, K-State and Wichita State — have done likewise. Angie Torain, an athletics administrator at Notre Dame since 2017, in June was named senior associate AD for Culture, Diversity and Engagement while retaining her previous duties pertaining to compliance. AB senior editor Paul Steinbach asked Torain to assess the racial climate in her corner of the athletics world.

What makes the timing right for positions like yours?
Diversity and inclusion have been a part of the university's goals for a while. From an athletic standpoint, we had started a diversity and inclusion council, and the thought process was that we needed someone to oversee diversity and inclusion for our department, staff, student-athletes and coaches. And then with the recent social injustice, our student-athletes speaking out, coaches and staff wanting to do some things, it was time. We couldn't wait anymore. We were in a hiring freeze at that time, but I didn't want this to be a scenario where we could not jump on this opportunity and do what we always have been planning to do. It was time to move it forward.

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