MIAMI (October 19, 2017) – FIU Athletics announced Thursday that Kerwin Lonzo has been named the Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.

Lonzo will supervise the media relations department as well as serve as the primary contact for the FIU football program. He'll serve as the spokesperson for the athletics department.

A 14-year veteran in sports communications, Lonzo has excelled in garnering publicity and executing communications plans for some of the top brands in college athletics.  

He spent five seasons at Florida State University from 2010-14, where he was the primary media contact for the football program. He managed the media and communications efforts for the nationally ranked Seminoles – winners of the 2013 BCS National Championship, three straight Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and owners of a school record 29-game win streak, which featured Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, national award winners for the Lou Groza Award (Roberto Aguayo), Rimington Trophy (Bryan Stork) and 2014 Mackey Award Winner (Nick O'Leary).

Prior to his stint at FSU, Lonzo spent four years in Coral Gables, Florida, where he was the associate sports media relations director at the University of Miami, serving as the media contact for the Hurricanes' football program (2008-10) and nationally ranked baseball program (2007-08). He handled the publicity for the 2008 Hurricanes' baseball team, which captured the school's first ACC Championship, earned the No. 1 overall national seed and advanced to the College World Series. Five Hurricanes earned All-America honors and eight Hurricanes were selected in the 2008 MLB Amateur draft including three first round picks in Yonder Alonso, Carlos Gutierrez and Jemile Weeks.

Lonzo went to UM from the University of Virginia, where he worked from 2005-07 as an assistant director of athletics media relations. While at UVA, he promoted the nationally ranked baseball and men's soccer teams and worked with wrestling. The 2006 UVA men's soccer team advanced to the NCAA College Cup and the 2006 Cavalier baseball team hosted the program's second ever NCAA Regional and featured ACC Player of the Year and current Washington Nationals Reliever Sean Doolittle.

Lonzo served one season as assistant athletics media relations director at Vanderbilt (2004-05) for the nationally ranked women's basketball team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. Prior to working at Vanderbilt, Lonzo was an assistant director of athletics media relations at East Carolina (2003-04), where he worked with the men's soccer, volleyball, swimming & diving and baseball programs. The 2004 ECU baseball team hosted the 2004 NCAA Kinston (N.C.) Regional and advanced to the Columbia (S.C.) Super Regional on its way to setting a school record with 51 wins.

Lonzo started his career in sports publicity at Samford University (2001-03). While at Samford, he promoted the cross country and baseball programs as an intern before being named assistant sport information director in the summer of 2002. He then served as the primary contact for the football, women's basketball and baseball programs. He was the sports editor for The Alexander City (Ala.) Outlook and Dadeville (Ala.) Record (2000-01) after graduating college.

A native of New Orleans, La., he earned a B.S. in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Birmingham-Southern College in 2000. He is currently finishing up his Master of Legal Studies with a concentration in sports business and sports law through Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and at Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law, and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.