Claire Johnson, the associate director of communications for the athletics department at the University of Memphis, oversees public relations for the men’s and women’s soccer teams and the women’s basketball team.
Johnson administers the social media accounts and press releases for those sports and works with the American Athletic Conference and the NCAA. She also supervises the compiling of stats for the soccer and basketball games, hires people to compute stats for those games and ensures those stats are calculated correctly.
“Basically, anything external facing those teams passes through my desk and goes through me,” Johnson said.
In 2016, Johnson graduated from Lindenwood University-Belleville, located in Belleville, Indiana, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and media studies. During her time in college, Johnson was a part of the Lady Lynx basketball team and was named on the American Midwest Conference All-Academic Team twice from 2013 to 2015. In 2018, Johnson got her Master of Arts degree in corporate communications with an emphasis in human resources development. Before Johnson’s many academic and athletic accomplishes, she began her college career as a student worker at LUB.
“I started as a student worker with my basketball coach. One day, I went up to him and asked him ‘Who are all these people working the game?’” Her coach then led her to the sports information office and promptly secured her a job. “I was going to all the games, so I asked myself, ‘Why don’t I get paid for these games I am already going to be at?’”
Following graduation, she was promoted to graduate assistant and worked in that role for eight months.
In July of 2021, she arrived at the University of Memphis. Johnson explains that she stumbled on the job inquiry for the role, which she eventually applied for and accepted. “I wasn’t exactly looking to leave, I was just seeing what was out there,” said Johnson. “It’s the people that kind of kept me here, and everyone here understands that we are all working towards the same goal.”
Johnson serves a lot of different roles outside of men and women’s soccer and woman’s basketball. She is the back-up statistician for volleyball, baseball and softball. In addition, she works at all the home football and men’s basketball games.
“I am like a Swiss army knife. I do a little bit of everything. No two days are the same.”
Scott Burns, the director of communications for the athletics department at the University of Memphis, who oversees the football program and the rifle program, works side-by-side with Johnson and sees her as a big asset to the campus and the department.
“My favorite part of working with Claire is that she is a person that I can count on 100 percent. Claire brings a great attitude to the office, and she is terrific at her job. She brings great energy to work every single day and is a person that others can lean on,” Burns said.
