SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Drury University Vice President & Director of Athletics Nyla Milleson announced changes to the department's administrative staff, effective Monday, June 2.
 
Ed Beach, formerly the Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations at Drury for the last nine years, will shift responsibilities to Associate Athletic Director of External Affairs and handle the department's corporate partnerships, basketball season ticket sales, booster club memberships, special events, and other administrative duties.
 
Beach's move was preceded by Barbara Cowherd's shift to Associate Athletic Director of Internal Affairs last January. A member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame, and the Drury Athletics Hall of Fame, Cowherd returned to the Drury Athletics Department in 2022 and moved into a similar role she previously held from 1999 to 2019.
 
Drury will add Eric Doennig to the staff as Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations. Doennig has been the Associate Director for Strategic Communications at the University of Missouri for the past two years, leading the department's communications efforts for Mizzou baseball and swimming and diving, while also serving as secondary contact for the Tigers' nationally-ranked football program.
 
Doennig returns to Drury, where he spent the 2022-23 academic year as the Coordinator of Facilities and Operations. Prior to Drury, he spent two years as the Director of Athletics Communications for Evangel University, as well as a stint as Director of Communications for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Doennig spent 14 years as Assistant Director of Athletics Communications at Missouri State University, most notably serving as primary sports contact for MSU baseball for nine seasons, covering four postseason-qualifying clubs, including the Bears' NCAA Regional championship teams in 2015 and 2017. He also led MSU's communications efforts for the sports of football, softball, track and field, cross country, and women's basketball during his tenure. Over the last decade, the Mizzou graduate and Republic, Mo., native has also lent his skills to USA Baseball, the national governing body for the sport of baseball, as media relations and statistics coordinator. In 2023, Doennig was tabbed to serve as primary press officer for USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team, after filling the same role for Team USA during the WBSC's Baseball Americas Qualification Event for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo in 2021.
 
Hudson Harkness will move from a Drury Athletics Graduate Assistant for Media Relations to a full-time role as Assistant Director for Media Relations. Harkness joined Drury's Athletic Department as a GA in August of 2024 and worked with all of Drury's 22 NCAA sports in addition to working for the Great Lakes Valley Conference during the GLVC Softball Championship Tournament and was Drury's media representative at the 2024 women's soccer NCAA-II Midwest Regional Championship and the 2025 NCAA-II softball regional in Saginaw, Mich. A graduate of Northwood University in Michigan, he was previously a student-worker in the sports communications office of his alma mater and served on the media relations event staff for the Great Lakes Loons, the Class A Midwest League affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
 
"I'm excited that we can make these changes and do so without adding additional costs to the university," said Milleson. "I believe the additions and changes will result in a noticeable difference in our coverage of Drury Athletics and positively impact our teams and student-athletes in addition to better serving our fans, season ticket holders, and business partners."
 
Drury Athletics will also add four graduate assistants to their office: Owen Simmons (Northern Illinois) in Compliance & Operations, Tobin Gardner (Fort Hays State) for Facilities & Operations, Joshua Clark under Media Relations (Wartburg), and Kathryn Flowers (Missouri Southern State) for External Operations/Marketing.
 
 
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