Dechausay Named Associate Athletics Director

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Marlon Dechausay has been named the associate athletics director for student-athlete welfare, sports services and compliance, University of Memphis Athletics Director Tom Bowen announced Wednesday. Dechausay joins the Tigers athletics department from the University of Illinois, where he served the past two years.

Dechausay's time working in athletics at the NCAA Division I level spans back 15 years and began as an assistant academic advisor at Syracuse while also working on his master's degree from 2003-05. Since then, Dechausay has had stints at Iowa State (2005-06), Florida State (2006-10), Texas Tech (2010-11), Indiana State (2011-13), Florida Atlantic (2013-16) and Illinois (2016-18).

In his stop at Illinois, Dechausay served as the associate athletics director for academic services. While in Champaign, Dechausay oversaw academic services for 500 student-athletes (19 sports) and served as the academic counselor for the Fighting Illini women's basketball program.

In his tenure, the Illini tied a school record as seven programs earned NCAA Public Recognition Awards in 2017. The award honors those teams with an Academic Progress Rate (APR) among the top-10 percent of their sports nationally. The previous year in 2016, seven Illinois programs earned perfect Graduation Success Rate (GSR) scores.

Dechausay assisted with the department's Senior Transition Workshop Series and created the Illini's REAL Talk Series, an open forum for student-athletes to speak on current topics in society. He helped remodel the Student-Athlete Development program and assisted with the expansion of the athletics department internship program. Dechausay also helped coordinate the Oskee Awards, the Illini's student-athlete end-of-the-year banquet.

An Illini senior staff member, Dechausay served on the athletics department's Diversity and Inclusion, Mission Statement Activation and Summer Bridge committees.

Prior to Illinois, Dechausay served as the associate athletics director for academics and the director of student-athlete center for academic excellence at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). In that role, he managed all aspects of FAU's academic support and student life programs for the athletics department's nearly 500 student-athletes.

Under his guidance, FAU's student-athletes had tremendous success in the classroom. In the fall of 2015, FAU student-athletes recorded the department's first semester with a grade-point average (GPA) above a 3.00 and then improved on that mark with a 3.10 GPA in the 2016 spring semester. Over his six semesters at the Boca Raton, Fla., institution, FAU athletics had a 14 percent increase in the department's GPA from a 2.71 to a 3.10.

Dechausay's time at FAU also saw a revitalization of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). In 2015-16, FAU student-athletes volunteered more than 4,100 hours in Boca Raton and its communities, more than doubling the efforts prior to Dechausay's arrival. Dechausay's also created the OWLspys, an end-of-the-year event that celebrated FAU student-athlete academic and athletic achievements and was organized by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Dechausay has been an active member of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A) since 2005 and is a recipient of the Lan Hewitt Leadership Award, given to outstanding athletic advisors. An NCAA Leadership Institute graduate, Dechausay is a frequent facilitator for the NCAA and is a presenter each year at the N4A Conference. In 2013, he was selected as one of Palm Beach County's top black educators by Legacy Palm Beach.

A Toronto, Ontario, native, Dechausay is a 2000 graduate of Louisiana-Lafayette and also earned his master's degree from Syracuse in 2005. As an undergraduate at Louisiana-Lafayette, Dechausay was a member of the track and field team and earned Sun Belt Conference titles in the 400 meters. He also ran for the Canadian national track and field team from 1992-99 and is Japan's 400-meters record holder for runners under 19.

Dechausay and his wife, Tina, have two sons: Marlon Jr. and Braylon.

University of Memphis Athletics

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