CLEVELAND – The Mid-American Conference honored recently retired Western Michigan University Director of Athletics Kathy Beauregard as its inaugural Trailblazer Award winner on Wednesday evening at the conference's annual Honors Dinner Ceremony.  
 
The Trailblazer Award is to be given annually to a member of the Mid-American Conference community who has demonstrated support of equal opportunities and the student-athlete experience.
 
Beauregard began her 42-year career at WMU in 1979 when she was hired as the head coach of the gymnastics program. After nine seasons, she moved into administration within the athletic department and began her meteoric rise.
 
In 1997, Beauregard was promoted to Director of Athletics, and spent the next 24 years at the helm of Western Michigan Athletics. She was often one of the few female athletic directors in what is now called the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and was one of just nine out of 130 when she retired at the end of 2021. Through her guidance, the Broncos won 58 Mid-American Conference Championships, won the MAC Institutional Academic Achievement Award for men eight times and saw the 2016 WMU football program go undefeated during the regular season and earn a berth in the 2017 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.
 
She oversaw the construction of the $8 million Bill Brown Football Alumni Center and the $21 million Seelye Athletic Indoor Center that is used by seven of WMU's 16 varsity sports. During her tenure at Western Michigan, baseball's Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field underwent a $2.2 million renovation, Baker Farm was transformed into the WMU Soccer Complex, both the indoor and outdoor tracks were replaced, and new video boards were installed at Lawson Ice Arena, Waldo Stadium and University Arena.
 
Beauregard was also integral to many fundraising efforts that benefitted both the university and the athletic department, including the recent $550 million Empowering Futures Gift, of which $50 million was earmarked for WMU Athletics.
 
Her influence was spread nationally, as she served on the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee, the NCAA Championships Cabinet, the NCAA Football Bowl Certification Committee and the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
 
With her success, Beauregard pulled in many community and athletic awards and recognitions. She was named the Gerald R. Ford Sportsman of the Year in 2012, received the National Association of College Directors of Athletics Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year Award and was named a "Game Changer: Women in Sports Business" by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal in September 2018. In June of 2019, she was appointed to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's Task Force on Women in Sports and was the recipient of Michigan Women Forward's 2020 Women of Achievement and Courage Award.
 
Beauregard dedicated her career to improving the lives of the student-athletes at Western Michigan and encouraged its 350-plus student-athletes and staff to make an impact in their community. Because of all this, Kathy Beauregard will have an ever-lasting legacy at WMU and in the Mid-American Conference.