Lori Kerans has spent her life in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) — first as a student-athlete, then as a coach and now as an administrator. As the league celebrates its 80th anniversary, the Millikin Hall of Famer and current MU Vice President for Athletics and Community Engagement reflects on what makes the conference special and why it continues to shape lives.
 
“The CCIW is home for me,” Kerans said. “I think of quality, a sense of community, purpose and excellence. It’s an important gathering of like-minded folks who want to provide a great student-athlete experience and graduate wonderful students who are going to change the world.”
 
Kerans’ journey began before the CCIW even recognized women’s championships. As a player at Millikin, she competed at a time when opportunities for women were limited. “My playing career didn’t have CCIW championships for women,” she said. “Those weren’t around yet when I was playing for Millikin. But then I was fortunate enough to become the coach who got to coach in the first season of women’s championships recognized by the CCIW.”
 
Standing on the Shoulders of Pioneers
Kerans’ perspective on the league has evolved alongside its growth. “We’re standing on the shoulders of those who came before us,” she said. “When I was playing, we thought we were excellent and we were grateful for the opportunity, but we were definitely as women treated differently than our male counterparts. But then when the CCIW stepped up in 1986 and first recognized women’s championships, I think it changed the way all of our schools treat the opportunities for women.”
 
That shift toward equity is something Kerans remains proud of. “That makes me grateful for wise administrators, wise presidents, commissioners, associate commissioners who said, ‘Let’s do this the right way for both men and women,’” she said. “The equity and parity is really good in the conference, amongst the conference and for all student-athletes in the conference.”
 
As a freshman player at Millikin in the 1981–82 season, Kerans participated in the first-ever NCAA Division III championship for women. “There were 16 teams chosen nationally,” she recalled. “We happened to be one, but I think it was because our coach and my mentor, Harriet Crannell, was on the first committee for the Division III championships, and so she had a seat at the table and a voice in the room, and people knew Millikin because of Coach Cranell.”
 
The Coaching Years and a Championship Standard
Kerans transitioned from player to coach in 1986, the same year the CCIW began recognizing women’s championships. “That was the first year the CCIW recognized championships for women,” she said. “I’ve been involved in the NCAA, I’ve been involved in CCIW leadership, and I just want to go back and say, I think athletics make such a difference.”
 
Her coaching tenure at Millikin was marked by competitive excellence, including in a national championship in 2004-05. “I often joked that I should have purchased a national championship ring for Beth Baker at Wheaton because they were every bit the best team in the conference, if not a better team than us in the conference that year,” she said. “Our national championship was really because we were fighting all season to prepare for her team in the conference championship. That’s the fabric of competitiveness that I see and feel in the CCIW.”
 
Kerans credits the league’s strength for preparing teams to compete on the national stage. “Every national championship, in every sport, probably the head coach could say that about a conference competitor,” she said. “We were chasing X school or Y school, and that prepared us well.”
 
She also drew inspiration from other CCIW programs. “Two years before I played in the national championship Final Four, North Central won a national championship in women’s basketball in 1983,” she said. “And then pretty soon, Mia Smith at Illinois Wesleyan wins her first … It’s a movement, a feeling, an expectation. It sets a standard for all of us, not about the hardware we bring home, but about the way in which we prepare to compete for those championships.”
 
A Changing Landscape
Over the decades, Kerans has witnessed significant changes in college athletics. “This is really gonna date me,” she said with a laugh. “Back in the early days, the coach was taping ankles and running the conditioning and lifting program and driving the van or the station wagon or the bus. Almost all coaches have in their life made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the road.”
 
Today, the support system around student-athletes looks very different. “We have academic advisors and coordinators now for athletics,” she said. “We have social media gurus, strength and conditioning, athletic training, nutrition and recovery. We have all of these people around our programs. Way back in the day, it was typically one person and their partner or their friend who was volunteering to help.”
 
The evolution of resources has transformed the student-athlete experience. “When I think of change, it’s about how blessed our student-athletes are now with those resources that surround them so that they can find their passion, fuel their passion, and become the very best athlete they can while they’re being the very best student they can,” Kerans said.
 
First Female Athletic Director in the CCIW
Kerans also made history as the first female athletic director in the CCIW in 1996. “Somebody had to be the first, but I’m grateful that Millikin entrusted that responsibility to me,” she said. “I learned from the very best mentors I could have. All of those people poured into me so that then I could in turn take the lessons about my beloved Millikin and share those as a leader.”
 
Being the first came with challenges. “I was 34, and to walk into that room of all men — and I mean, some phenomenal powerhouse kind of men — and to not feel a little bit in awe inside and yet to try and have that stoic appearance on the outside, it’s what we all do as coaches,” she said. “It was a time of growth, a time of learning, not just for me, but for Millikin and for our conference.”
 
She credits her colleagues for their support. “I was treated with grace and given the space to grow and develop,” she said. “The way this conference treats with great respect and dignity each other, whether we’re at the same institution or at competitor institutions, I think is unusual, special, and really the thing that sets us apart.”
 
Coaching, Leadership and Legacy
Kerans believes that being a coach helped shape her approach as an administrator, but she also recognizes that the role of an athletic director has evolved. “Athletics has become a bit of a business,” she said. “Being business-minded, recruitment and retention-minded, being community-minded are really important qualities.”
 
At the heart of her philosophy is a focus on the student-athlete. “The coaches that I think serve our student-athletes the best are those who understand the balance of life and sport and academics and how all of those things have to integrate,” she said. “The expectation cannot be that every single day, every single student-athlete is behaving exactly the way we expect them to. The standard has to be that every single day, every student has the opportunity to be their very best.”
 
Kerans also emphasizes the importance of storytelling and honoring the past. “A 17 or 18-year-old is looking ahead, not necessarily behind, and so they will only understand that rearview mirror look if we tell that story,” she said. “We have to keep that alive so that we can show gratitude, show respect, show honor to the work that those folks before us did because it is paving the way for the future.”
 
Looking Ahead
As the CCIW marks eight decades of excellence, Kerans hopes people recognize Millikin’s role in that history — and the power of relationships that define the student-athlete experience.
 
“Eighty years is a long time,” she said. “What I hope people think about Millikin is the interactions, the intersections of people — whether that is faculty, coaches, admission staff, academic advisors. It’s the interaction and intersection of all of those people that shape the experience of each individual student-athlete that we have the privilege and honor of working with here at Millikin.”
 
For Kerans, the ultimate goal is to prepare students for meaningful lives. “We have the real true privilege of impacting their real formative years as young independent adults,” she said. “Wherever they go in the world, I want a Millikin graduate to absolutely make a positive impact, inspirational difference, and transformative experience for everyone whose life they touch.”
 
Reflecting on her career and the conference she calls home, Kerans is guided by three simple words: gratitude, joy, and belief. “Banners are fun, trophies are nice in a case,” she said, “but those experiences are something that these student-athletes and their families will never, ever forget.”