St. Johns University welcomes Lara Thornton, a professional with more than eight years of experience in collegiate sports information and publications design, as its Assistant Director of Athletic Communications/Publications Coordinator.
Thornton comes to St. Johns after spending the last several years in the Orlando, Fla., area. She served as the Communications Director for the University of Central Floridas sports information unit from 1999-2004 as part of an eight-year tenure with the Golden Knights. In that capacity, Thornton designed and produced 15 UCF media guides annually, as well as posters, game programs, recruiting materials, advertisements, logos, brochures and credentials.
Thornton also served as webmaster for the Universitys athletics website, www.ucfathletics.com, managed the publications budget, and was the offices chief liaison to external printing vendors. Her publications have garnered several awards for excellence as judged by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
In addition to her duties with publications, Thornton served as an assistant sports information director at UCF, providing communications support for the Golden Knights womens basketball, mens soccer, track and field and cross country programs.
Thornton is a 1994 graduate of the California University of Pennsylvania, where was a four-year womens basketball standout, and currently ranks second on the Vulcans all-time career scoring chart. She was inducted into the Universitys Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2000.
In other St. Johns Athletics news, Director of Sports Marketing Edward Kull was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Marketing and Promotions. Also, Director of Athletic Communications Mark Fratto was elevated to Associate Athletics Director for Communications.