Former USA Swimming Senior Director of Legal and Membership Affairs, Abigail Howard, has recently been hired on to Army West Point’s executive staff as the Senior Associate Athletics Director & Corporate Counsel.
West Point Athletics announced her employment on Oct. 4, in which she now consults and provides guidance to Director of Athletics Mike Buddie.
“Abby will join our Executive Staff and her extensive legal expertise and administration experience in college athletics and USA Swimming will be a tremendous asset to the department and the Academy,” Buddie said.
Howard has worked for USA Swimming in various positions for the last four years. She began as the Associate Counsel in 2018 and then switched to Associate Counsel & Director of Safe Sport in 2019. Her most recent role as Senior Director of Legal and Membership Affairs utilized her law background.
With her JD degree from the University of Kansas School of Law, Howard oversaw USA Swimming’s governance matters, Safe Sport program, and member services. Howard also strategized and implemented policies and procedures that valued Safe Sport and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Howard made her last significant contribution to USA Swimming by striking a deal with RealResponse and debuting its abuse reporting tool on Sept. 1.
Bearing in mind the sexual abuse crisis plaguing USA Swimming, Howard introduced RealResponse to 350,000 swimmers to promptly address and investigate sex abuse allegations. Other athletic organizations like USA Gymnastics, USA Track and Field, and the Denver Broncos American football team already use this platform as a safe space to make anonymous reports.
“[With RealResponse,] we will be able to hopefully act more nimbly on reports that we get, whereas previously if we didn’t have enough information, we might have to close a case or not be able to report it on further,” Howard told 9News,
Before joining USA Swimming, Howard was the Associate Commissioner for Legal, Compliance, and Governance and Senior Woman Administrator for the America East Conference from 2016-18. Having been an Ohio State University swimmer from 2001-05, Howard returned to the sport as the conference’s sport administrator for men’s and women’s swimming & diving.
According to West Point’s press release, Howard will also serve as the sport administrator for selected programs, which may once again include men’s and women’s swimming & diving.