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New OVC commish cut her teeth in SEC

New OVC commish cut her teeth in SEC
BRENTWOOD — Elizabeth (Beth) DeBauche, director of Division I at the NCAA since 2002, has been named commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference.
DeBauche will begin her duties with the OVC in mid-September.
“We are excited to have someone of the caliber of Beth DeBauche join the Ohio Valley Conference,” said Dr. Robert Bell, President of Tennessee Technological University and Chair of the OVC Board of Presidents, who annou-nced the hiring. “She not only brings a wealth of experience from the NCAA, but she has also worked on campus and in the SEC office, covering all the bases. She is a truly outstanding find for the OVC.”
DeBauche  becomes the seventh full-time commissioner in the 61-year history of the OVC.
She follows Art Guepe (1963-75), Paul Dietzel (1975-76), Bob Vanatta (1976-79), Jim Delaney (1979-89), Dan Beebe (1989-2003) and Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher (2003-09), who left to become commissioner of the Mid-American Conference in May.
DeBauche will be one of just five females to be the head of a Division I Conference in 2009-10, and one of just eight to lead a Division I Conference all-time.
“I am both humbled and delighted to have been selected by the presidents as the commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference, given its history of academic and athletic excellence,” said DeBauche. “I am excited to have the opportunity to serve the presidents, administrators, faculty and student-athletes of the OVC and I am looking forward to a bright future for the conference.”
Since August 2002 DeBauche, along with the vice-president of Division I, has been responsible for coordinating Division I initiatives through the NCAA governance structure, as well as helping to manage the Division I agenda. 
Prior to her work at the NCAA, she worked at the Southeastern Conference from November 1996 until August 2002.
As an assistant and later associate commissioner of the league, she managed all aspects of the SEC’s rules compliance.
From 1996 to 1998, DeBauche was the director of the National Letter of Intent program for the Collegiate Commissioners Association. In that role she was the administrator in charge of issuing all NLI rules interpretations, creating rules education materials and providing NLI rules education presentations as well as being the primary information resource for parents, student-athletes and the media.
DeBauche got her start in collegiate athletics at Vanderbilt University where she served as the Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance from August 1994 until November 1996.