Melissa Dudek has served as the Sports Information Director for Lewis & Clark since December 2003. She came to Lewis & Clark and the world of NCAA III athletics from Minor League Baseball where she spent nine seasons working for teams in the Rockies, Phillies, White Sox, and Brewers organizations. She most recently was the Assistant General Manager of the Helena Brewers Baseball Team in Helena, Montana. With the Brewers, she doubled as a radio play-by-play broadcaster and color commentator.

An accomplished writer, Dudek was the winner of the 2003 Carolinas Contemporary Playwrights Competition with her full-length play Serenity. She published her first novel Wildfire Summer in the fall of 2001 and followed that up with a 2005 release, Catchers, Cows, and Nachos.

Dudek graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 1992 with a B.A. in Communications. She was born in Chicago, but grew up outside of San Diego. She spent six years living near Charlotte, N.C., but now resides in southwest Portland.

In addition to her normal Sports Information duties, Dudek is also the play-by-play announcer for Pioneer baseball, softball, and volleyball and also handles play-by-play for select Pioneer men's and women's basketball games. She was given the title of Assistant Director of Athletics for Media Relations in 2007.

Dudek is a member of COSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America), NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association), WISE (Women in Sports and Events, Charlotte Chapter), Minor League Baseball Alumni Association, and the 2005 President of the Portland Jaycees. She spends much of her free time volunteering in the community including working projects for the Oregon Food Bank and Easter Seals of Oregon. She has also worked numerous special events in Oregon including the 2005 US Figure Skating Championships, NCAA baseball and softball regionals in Corvallis, the LPGA Safeway Classic Pro-Am, the Les Schwab Invitational, the 2007 West Coast Conference Basketball Tournaments, and the 2007 Davis Cup Tennis Championships. She was also part of the media relations team for the 2006 World Baseball Classic, working in the Orlando bracket. She was a finisher at the 2006 Portland Marathon.

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