Before taking on a new role as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Career Advancement in 2024, Jackie Slaats served as the Lake Forest College Vice President for Career Advancement and Athletics for five years. She was also the College's Director of Athletics for 27 years, beginning in 1992, and added the title of Senior Advisor to the president in 2008, a role that eventually led to her oversight of the Career Advancement Center in 2017. Slaats provided leadership and oversight for 25 intercollegiate varsity athletic programs, along with a wide array of club sport, intramural, and physical education/fitness-related programming.
One of the first things Slaats did as Director of Athletics in 1992 was to hang a sign in the Sports Center that reads, “Lake Forest College: A Tradition of Excellence.” Since that day, she strived to uphold and enhance this tradition through classroom, competition, community, and more recently career related excellence. The results of her vision and leadership can be seen throughout the entire Athletic Department, College, and local community. Highlights of her career include the creation of the F.A.N. Club (Forester Athletic Network) and Fanatics, the College’s booster/spirit organizations; implementation of the Forester Game Plan, a four-year career program that connects student-athletes with alumni and friends of the College to help prepare them for life after Lake Forest; the addition of 11 varsity sports (women's hockey and men's and women's cross country, golf, lacrosse, and indoor and outdoor distance track); and partnerships with several local community organizations. In addition, she has overseen several significant improvements made to Lake Forest College athletic facilities, including the $17-million expansion of the Sports and Recreation Center in 2010, completion of the $4.5-million Home Ice Advantage Campaign renovations from 2012-17, installation of new synthetic turf at Farwell Field in 2017, the $4.1-million construction of Mohr Field and renovation of Halas Hall in 2020, and most recently the 1.4-million gymnasium renovation project which is slated for completion in December of 2024. The Princeton Review ranked Lake Forest College 18th in the country for “Best Athletic Facilities” in 2016.
Forester teams were extremely successful in 32 years under her direction, combining for a .608 winning percentage in league play and 4,375 victories overall. They also captured 67 conference championships, claimed 39 U.S. Handball Association national collegiate titles, and made 71 appearances in NCAA Championship competition. Individual athletes were named all-conference more than 1,500 times with 200 All-American honors and nearly 2,700 academic all-conference accolades.Â
In addition to her accomplishments as an administrator, Slaats enjoyed an extremely successful coaching career at Lake Forest – first as the head women’s basketball and volleyball coach from 1986-92 and then as director of athletics and head women’s basketball coach from 1992-2008. In 22 seasons at the helm of the Forester basketball program, her teams posted an impressive 386-133 win-loss record, claimed six conference titles, and earned the program’s first ever national tournament bid. Her .743 career winning percentage ranks among the top 30 in NCAA Division III women’s basketball history today. Slaats was named Midwest Conference Coach of the Year six times and Illinois Basketball Coaches Associations Division III Coach of the Year five times. She also coached the volleyball program to a 100-84 record in the six seasons prior to becoming director of athletics.
In honor of her numerous coaching and administrative accomplishments; Slaats was inducted into the Lake Forest College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2012. She also received the Midwest Conference Meritorious Service Award in 2023 and the trophy presented to the winner of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association’s women’s postseason tournament was renamed the Slaats Cup in 2013 in recognition of her contributions to the formation of the league’s women’s division.
Slaats earned her undergraduate degree from Iowa State University in 1986, where she played four years of basketball for the Cyclones, and her master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1992.
