California State University, East Bay announced three finalists for the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics position last week, vacant since September.

Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins, Joan McDermott, and Douglas Hupke made the final cut to fill the vacancy left by Sara Lillevand Judd when she stepped down from the position for personal reasons.

The search committee headed by Andrea Wilson, associate vice president of Student Support and Development, narrowed the list of 74 applicants from all over the country to the top 11 candidates. The committee then conducted interviews via Skype and trimmed the list down to the top three finalists.

“The committee members worked within a very tight timeline in order to ideally have this position filled by January 2015,” Wilson said. “The committee did an excellent job in reviewing and narrowing those 74 applicants down.”

Open forum events on campus were held over the last two weeks for the three finalists which allowed the campus community a chance to meet them, according to the Cal State East Bay website.

Once the references of all three finalists are checked, a final decision will be made by CSUEB President Leroy Morishita and acting Vice President of Student Affairs Stan Hebert.

Shrieve-Hawkins is the assistant director of athletics at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. Shrieve-Hawkins has held that position since 2006 where the Gaels have been extremely successful, especially their Division I men’s basketball team who are regulars in the NCAA tournament.

McDermott has the most experience in the position; she has held the director of athletics job at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 1998.

Hupke is the only finalist not currently in an athletics position. Hupke is the Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at San Francisco State University.

“It was a competitive pool of applicants and I cannot thank the committee enough for their due diligence in the process and effort to meet the timeline set forth,” Wilson said.