After two years as the Assistant Dean of Students, Dr. Jill Gerloff has moved to a new role on campus. Dr. Gerloff accepted the role of Assistant Athletic Director for Academic Services and Retention in the Texas Wesleyan Athletics Department. This four-year grant-funded position will focus on supporting student-athletes as they balance their athletic and scholarly endeavors and serve as an advocate for their academic success through intentional programming and intervention efforts with multiple campus partners. 

"I knew Dr. Gerloff was the perfect candidate for the position when she shared her vision for this new position with me,” said Ricky Dotson, athletic director. “She has spent the past two years advocating for and supporting TXWES students — many of whom are student-athletes. Because of the great job she did while serving as the assistant dean of students, Dr. Gerloff has the trust of students, the athletic coaching staff and university leadership, which will allow her to step into this new role and immediately start making an impact.”    

Dr. Gerloff saw the position as an opportunity to create something on campus that will have a lasting impact on both current and future student-athletes. She felt that in her role as Assistant Dean of Students, she had established good relationships with coaches and student-athletes, and it seemed like a natural fit to combine everything she loved about her work in Student Affairs with her passion for student-athlete development. 

“This position gives me the opportunity to impact the university through recruiting and retaining students with a successful athletic program,” Gerloff said. “Success is not always measured in wins and losses, but also in the character of students we graduate and how we prepare them their life after their athletic careers.” 

In 2022, Texas Wesleyan had 46 students named as NAIA Scholar-Athletes, which awards students who have high-level academic success. Additionally, at the end of the fall 2022 semester, approximately 38% of TXWES student-athletes had a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.  

“I would like to increase those numbers significantly over the next four years,” said Gerloff.  “My dream for this position is to develop a fully staffed student-athlete academic success center. Whether that is a new building or a renovation of space on campus, it would serve as a resource to support student-athletes’ academic achievements and personal and professional growth and development.”