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This feature is one of the many profiles we are doing to showcase our diverse CoSIDA membership during 2017 CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week. To see all the feature stories, please click HERE.

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Andrea Wheeler: Alabama State University
Director of Creative Content and Emerging Media 

by Rob Knox, Towson University Associate Director of Media Relations/ CoSIDA First Vice President
 
As one of the talented graphic designers in the country, Alabama State University’s Director of Creative Content and Emerging Media Andrea Wheeler has earned the affectionate nickname of “graphics bae” from her friends and student-athletes for her meticulous, stunning, powerful and visually appealing work.
 
The former North Carolina Central softball student-athlete has made a major impact at the three Historically Black Colleges and Universities she has worked for (North Carolina Central, Bethune-Cookman and Alabama State).
 
What got you interested in media relations and specifically graphic design?
As a child I was a huge Duke women's basketball fan. I liked to listen to the games on the radio when they were on the road, but I had a really hard time keeping up with what was going on. I made a little notebook where I would literally “keep stats.” I boxed off little areas for every stat I could keep up with and then would compare at the end of the games to the final stats. I seriously did this for every game when I didn’t have a game of my own.

 

But then it went even further, I started my own little website where I would make postgame “stories” and “graphics.” It was something I spent all my free time on. I tried to make my stuff as good as what was coming out on the GoDuke.com website. Graphic design then became a hobby outside of sports, also. I would save all my friends pictures off Facebook and make them little graphics (looking back they were horrible lol) but it was just a hobby. My dad downloaded the free Photoshop type program on our computers in the house (paint.NET) and I would just sit there until I could figure it out.
 
How do you feel that being a student-athlete helped you transition into athletic media relations?
Being a student-athlete helped me in a lot of ways, especially because the first sports I covered were non-revenue sports. I also played a non-revenue sport, so it made me take a little more pride in doing stuff for those student-athletes that maybe I wish I would have seen done for my teammates and myself. I also played more than just softball growing up, so the fact that I already had a large knowledge of other sports definitely helped. I was able to cater to how student-athletes, coaches and potential recruits would want to see things a little easier.
 
How do you come up with design ideas for your posters and graphics? What’s your inspiration?
My inspiration is all over the place. Obviously there a ton of pros in the field that I follow and admire so I look at their work when I need some inspiration. But a lot of times I like for my work to have a story related to itself, so I will spend time either researching the school’s history, walking around campus, the community, looking at different buildings, anything.
 

Alabama State is BEAUTIFUL. I get the chance to show the world that and it’s awesome. The amount of winning these student-athlete do is also insane. Within my first four months we won seven conference championships. The winning atmosphere here is contagious. It definitely pushes me to do a better job.
 
What’s been some of your most meaningful accomplishments during your career that you want to speak about and proud of?
It is the #PreyTogether campaign developed at Bethune-Cookman. Definitely the highlight of my career thus far. It started during a car ride home for Christmas. Jasmine Alston (who works at BCU) and me were brainstorming ideas we wanted to use for the department “theme” for the next academic year. We were all over the place with ideas. She really liked the word together, but we knew just using that was too cliche. Over our three-day break at home I could not stop thinking of ideas. I kept replaying this video our athletic director had made for the volleyball team and the words prey/pray stuck out to me. So Christmas morning, 2015, I typed “PreyTogether” in my phone.
 
The next day we drove back to our Florida campus and I told Jasmine I thought I was onto a theme and wanted to see what she thought. I opened my phone and read it to her and she was like ‘yep, that’s it.’ I’m pretty sure neither of us thought it would take off and stick as much as it has, but once we shared with the rest of the staff and then the student-athletes, it really took off and that is something I will forever be proud of.

 

Who are some of your mentors and what did you learn from them?
Kyle Serba, North Carolina Central’s director of sports information, was my first boss. He took a chance on me and set an outstanding example of not only how to be an amazing professional, but also a great person. He taught me to pay attention to detail and how important that is, and taught me how to stand by your work and to believe in your ability.
 
Bryan Harvey allowed me to do my job a little less traditionally at Bethune-Cookman. I now work for some amazing people at Alabama State. Our interim AD Jennifer Williams and senior associate AD of external relations Terrance Jones have always been in my corner even when we were at different schools. I also have an amazing group of people in the profession that I am forever grateful for helping me be where I am in my career and in my life. This group of people has helped me through so many professional and personal situations. Each of them has helped me grow in different aspects of my life.
 
These relationships I have made with the six of these people is definitely a huge part of who I am today.
 
More about Wheeler
• She shares the same birthday with this author.
• Wheeler has one of the most entertaining Snapchat accounts around.
• Outside of work, she loves music and attends lots of concerts.
• Andrea loves trying new food and finding hidden restaurant gems while on the road. She jokes that she’s everyone’s go-to person for food recommendations.
• Andrea has lived in five states and 12 cities.