Willamette SAAC Executive Board Members are Elected for 2025-26

Salem, Ore. - The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Executive Board has been elected at Willamette University for the 2025-26 athletic year. Each fall and spring at Willamette, the SAAC Executive Board features seven student-athletes who lead the SAAC during meetings and oversee projects throughout the fall, winter, and spring athletic seasons. 

Co-presidents for 2025-26 will be Abbey Staniec from triathlon and swimming and Maggie Sawyer from softball. It will be Sawyer's second year as a Willamette SAAC Executive Board member after having served as secretary in 2024-25. Staniec has been a SAAC representative for triathlon her first three years at Willamette and this will be her first year on the Executive Board.

The secretary of the Willamette SAAC in 2025-26 will be Grace O'Steen from tennis. Judah Ali'ifua from football and track and field will serve as the treasurer and his teammate in both sports, Parker Hisey, is filling the role of philanthropy chair.  Softball student-athletes Jenna Hopkins and Lauren Stube will be the social media and communications chair and at-large member, respectively.

"I'd like to thank our outgoing 2024-25 Executive Board for their hard work and dedication over this past year and for being an example for our incoming Executive Board members," Willamette Director of Swimming and SAAC Advisor Brent Summers said. 

"I am looking forward to working with our new board members next year and continuing to develop a great plan for enhancing the student-athlete experience," Summers added. "We will have a very new group, with only one returning board member, and I'm excited about the new ideas and goals this group will bring to continue to benefit our Athletic, university, and larger Salem communities."

Outgoing members of the Willamette SAAC Executive Board are co-presidents Tenley Grant from track & field and Morgan Shaw from cross country and track and field, secretary Maggie Sawyer from softball, communications director Lecia Sincere from track and field, service and philanthropy coordinator Emma Floyd from basketball, and at-large member Elyse Waldal from basketball.