USI named Mandi Fulton the new assistant director of athletics.

Fulton serves as the administrator for baseball, volleyball, cross-country, track & field, tennis and golf.

“I didn’t follow a normal path,” Fulton said.

Unlike many people in her field of work, Fulton did not go to school for anything sports related.

She graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in public relations in 2006 and returned to finish her master’s degree in public administration in 2010.

Fulton did not enter into college until she was 26,  but she never let that stop her from achieving her goals.

Before Fulton started college she worked at the Campus Bookstore in 1998. This gave her the opportunity to attend college for free while working on campus.

Despite her non-traditional path, her love of sports led to her choice in a career today.

Fulton said one of her favorite parts of working in her new role is watching the games.

“(It’s a) great day at work when I’m getting to watch teams win,” Fulton said.

Fulton said Jon Mark Hall, the athletic director for the university, is amazing.

She said you have to put in the effort to show that a female is just as capable of doing the job as well as a man.

Fulton said she looks up to Hall’s work ethic and hopes to model her own after him for the future.

Hall has never had the attitude that men are better, but Fulton said as a female in a male-dominated field of work “you have to suck it up and prove your worth.”