BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Van Wagner College has hired Ashlee Fincher as an account executive, specifically working with Samford Athletics, starting on March 1, 2022.
 
Fincher is in charge of all sponsorship fulfillment and media sales for the Samford Athletics Department. Fincher is a Samford graduate and spent time working with the Athletics Department during her time as an undergraduate and graduate student at the school. She says she is looking forward to continuing to work with the university and department she loves.
 
"I am very excited about the opportunity to continue assisting Samford Athletics in a new capacity with Van Wagner," Fincher said. "I have loved my time working as a marketing assistant and with the marketing department over the last five and a half years and am excited to see where this new role will lead. Once a bulldog, always a bulldog!"
 
Fincher made a big impact on the marketing department, serving the last two years as a graduate assistant. During the recently completed 2021-22 men's basketball season, she handled men's basketball's marketing efforts that saw a major increase in average attendance from the previous seasons. During that academic year, she handled marketing responsibilities for men's basketball, soccer and softball, and assisted with football. 
 
In her first year as a marketing graduate assistant in 2020-21, despite dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Fincher promoted the soccer team as it led the Southern Conference in average attendance. She also was a co-marketing contact for football in the spring season of 2021 as the team registered sellouts for all four home contests.
 
During her time as an undergraduate at Samford, Fincher worked as a student assistant in the athletics marketing office, serving as the co-marketing contact for baseball during the 2019 season. She also assisted with marketing for football, basketball and soccer.
 
Fincher spent part of her senior season working for the operations and facilities staff. She assisted with game-day operations for men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball.
 
In addition to her work with Samford Athletics, in the fall of 2018, Fincher worked as a brand ambassador for the Birmingham Legion FC. That fall she also worked as a research assistant for the Samford University Center for Sports Analytics, a spot she held until she graduated from the university.
 
From January to June of 2019, Fincher served as a social media intern for The Daniel Summit in Miami. In the summer of 2019, she worked as a marketing assets and activation intern for The Coca-Cola Company in her hometown of Atlanta. She also worked as a project lead for the Coca-Cola Sponsorship Project in the fall of 2019.
 
As a student at Samford, Fincher was a member of the Dean's List for four years, and she was a member of the Order of Omega, Gamma Sigma Alpha Honor Society and she won the Who's Who Award.  
 
Fincher is a 2020 Samford graduate with a degree in marketing with a concentration in sports marketing and data analytics. She is on track to finish her Master of Business Administration degree from Samford in April 2022.