Longtime SC State Athletics Director to Serve University in New Capacity

Orangeburg, SC – SC State University Athletics Director Charlene Johnson will assume a new role at the university. President Thomas J. Elzey has appointed Johnson as the university’s executive director of athletics fundraising. Johnson will begin her new position on April 15. For more than 10 years, Johnson has served as athletics director at SC State. She is the first female AD in the university’s 118-year history. “Mrs. Johnson is a trailblazer, serving as the first and only woman athletics director of this university and in the state,” said President Elzey. “During her tenure, she has grown our athletics program and has fortified its legacy as a top-ranked program in the South,” Elzey said. In the course of her 30-year career in athletics, Johnson gained national prominence throughout the athletics community. Under her leadership, four SC State teams – football, men’s and women’s tennis, and volleyball- earned Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles and NCAA post-season appearances. She has also worked to improve athletic facilities and provide support for young men and women student-athletes, who boast among the highest grade point averages in the MEAC. In her new capacity, Johnson will concentrate on building private and corporate relationships and partnerships aimed at garnering increased financial support for the university’s athletic programs and its student-athletes. “I have been honored to serve as athletics director of South Carolina State University over the last decade,” said Johnson. “I’m pleased to have been instrumental in moving the institution’s athletic programs forward and look forward to doing the same in my new capacity,” she said. The university will now begin a national search for a new athletics director. Founded in 1896 as a land grant institution with a mission of providing service to the citizens of the state, South Carolina State University has evolved from a small teachers’ college into a major University center of learning and research. Located in Orangeburg, S.C., with a student population of some 3,500, South Carolina State offers more than 50 different fields of study on the undergraduate and graduate levels. South Carolina State University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools.