Rising Stars Spotlights: Erica Hanserd and Sydney Moman
Erica Hanserd
Hanserd graduated from Southern Utah University in the spring of 2020 with her Bachelor's degree in Economics. Upon graduation, she began pursuing her passion of creating a more equitable, diverse, and holistically focused learning environment for athletes. A native to the west coast and former athlete herself, she recognizes the importance of creating tangible and innovative ways to help athletes develop as a whole person. Erica is a member of the inaugural class for the John McLendon Minority Leadership Initiative.
She currently serves the student-athletes at the University of Kentucky, where she is interning in the Student-Athlete Development department. She is an advocate for athlete empowerment, especially for those coming from marginalized backgrounds.
Sydney Moman
Moman began her journey in college athletics as a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati (UC) in the fall of 2015. Over the next four years, she spent time in Compliance, Football Recruiting, Sport Services, and Student-Athlete Academic Support. She also helped lead the athletic department’s One Team diversity & inclusion efforts. In 2019, she joined the Illini Way staff at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as the Assistant Student-Athlete Development Coordinator. At UIUC, she oversaw the community engagement efforts for Illini student-athletes in addition to serving as student-athlete development liaison to five sports. Sydney most recently served as Student-Athlete Development Coordinator at the University of Washington where she maintained the operational and communication systems for the Boundless Futures Student-Athlete Development program and coordinated the Dinner with a Dawg event, new student-athlete orientations, Title IX and alcohol & other drugs education, and The Sports Institute Husky Fellowship application process.
She is a two-time University of Cincinnati grad, receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Sport Administration in 2018 and Master’s in Sport Administration in 2019, While in grad school she co-created Women of UCSPAD, an organization that establishes community and professional development opportunities for female students in the UC Sport Administration program while building connections with alumni and industry professionals. With a heart for volunteerism and experiential learning, Sydney has dedicated time serving on volunteer teams for the Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Final Fours and the Marvin Lewis Community Fund’s Football 101. The Columbus, Ohio native is also a member of the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A), serving as co-lead of the Young Professionals subcommittee for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Sydney plans to one day establish scholarships for women and students of color interning in the college athletics industry. She also hopes to serve as professor in a Sport Administration program and be a part of a WNBA ownership group.