With the recent departure of Trevor Jossart, former director of communications, the Augustana Athletic Department hired Dustin Eichten to be the co-director of athletic communications. Eichten will be joining Lauren Fulscher, who was promoted to co-Sports Information Director when Eichten’s hire was announced and formerly served as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications.
Eichten has a lot of experience in the communications field, recently serving as the creative and content director for the Quad City Steamwheelers of the Indoor Football League, where he directed website, social media and creative campaigns and helped earn the 2023 Social Media Team of the Year from the league. With a new organization, Eichten said he is excited to bring a new perspective to the athletic department.
“I would say that my roots are in social media, marketing, design and content,” Eichten said. “In addition to that, I’ve always loved Excel sheets and stats and analytics, so having more roots in the branding and marketing and how we present ourselves visually, but also knowing those skills. I think that’s kind of a unique take on it.”
Additionally, Fulscher is entering her third year working for Augustana and has been overseeing the media and live streaming coverage for the 28 varsity teams Augustana has. With the two being named co-directors, Athletic Director Mike Zapolski is excited about what they will do for the athletic department, and looks forward to the two working together.
“This was a promotion for Lauren as well in terms of job title, from a financial standpoint and also in terms of responsibilities,” Zapolski said. “Rather than having a director and an assistant, now we have basically a co-leadership situation. We’ll continue to meet with them together, to talk about our collective efforts on publicizing and promoting Augustana teams, coaches, student athletes and sharing our story.”
Eichten and Fulscher both said they are eager to start working on new projects and have big ideas for the communications department, including gathering feedback from student athletes. However, they also understand that the basic responsibilities of their role are important and want to address those before looking ahead.
Fulscher oversees the social media side of the communications responsibilities growing more, especially with the chance for future recruits to see Augustana College athletics through popular social media apps.
“We want to start getting more input from the student-athletes and learn what their experience is like being a student-athlete and what they want to see,” Fulscher said. “I also want to bring more attention to our social media as a recruiting technique since the media is so popular with the youth.”
Zapolski envisions bringing in Eichten as more than just adding another person to the staff. With sports information constantly evolving, especially with the impact of technology on how stories are shared, having two different directors has become more important than ever.
With Eichten and Fulscher bringing different strengths and perspectives to the team, they can both benefit from learning from each other.
“He’s eager and anxious to learn other things, just like I think Lauren, if she were sitting here, would tell you she’s interested in learning some of the things that Dustin is very good at, too,” Zapolski said. “I’m looking for them to essentially be jacks of all trades for everything, because that’s just going to be to their benefit in the short term and the long term. The way athletic communications has worked has changed dramatically with the advances of technology.”
With Eichten settling in and preparing for the busy seasons ahead, the athletic communications staff is eager to share the teams’ and players’ stories with the public. Zapolski said he is excited for what the two will do for the athletics department and the major benefits it will bring to Augustana athletics.
