PHILADELPHIA – Dr. Andrea Wieland, an experienced professional with more than two decades of training athletes to peak physical and mental performance, has been named the Associate Athletic Director for Sports Performance at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of Athletics and Recreation Dr. M. Grace Calhoun announced today. An Olympian on the 1996 United States Field Hockey team, Wieland was most recently the Head of Mental Conditioning at IMG Academy.

"The Sports Performance program within Penn Athletics plays a significant role in holistically developing our students into well-rounded young men and women, and providing them with an unrivaled experience," Calhoun said. "Andrea's background in leading large-scale departments and executing high performance curriculums, along with her time as a collegiate coach and elite athlete, made her the perfect candidate to take our Sports Performance unit to an even higher level."

At Penn, Wieland will lead the Division's Sports Performance team, which is comprised of sports medicine, athletic training, strength and conditioning, nutrition, sports psychology, and mental health and wellness. The program, one of the Penn Athletics Centers for Excellence, is aiming to maximize a best-in-class partnership with Penn Medicine to provide a state-of-the-art health, safety and sport performance environment for Penn's nearly 1,000 intercollegiate student-athletes.
 
"I am so grateful for this tremendous opportunity with Penn Athletics, and want to thank the entire search committee for their efforts," Wieland said. "The position is really about tapping into the amazing resources that already exist and people on campus. The leadership in the Athletic Department is eager to make high performance and wellness programming a great success.

"This opportunity is even more meaningful to me because I have a strong family history at Penn. My father and uncles went to Penn Medical School, my mother earned a master's degree, from Penn, and my step-grandfather was the highly-celebrated football coach, George A. Munger. Moreover, I was born at Penn Hospital. I share this to articulate that this opportunity means so much more to me than just having a great job at a world class university."

While at IMG, Wieland directed all aspects of the mental conditioning and student well-being departments, leading a robust staff of 10 mental performance coaches for all student-athletes, campers and clients of IMG Academy. She also hired, and supervised six mental coaches to deliver mental performance services for Special Operations soldiers as part of a POTFF (Preservation of the Force and Family) military contract. Wieland was directly responsible for the mental conditioning curriculum for eight sports, training collegiate and elite youth athletes, and NFL, NBA and MLB prospects. In addition, she was the chair of the student well-being committee, which included representatives from around the IMG campus to ensure services are delivered to students who may be in crisis or distress.

Since 1994, Wieland has been the President of Winning Systems, Inc., which provides customer-focused performance enhancement presentations, workshops, seminars and individual coaching to professional, Olympic, collegiate and high school athletes. She also founded E1Fit, an online fitness, nutrition and mental training plan to improve wellness and performance behaviors in everyday individuals.

Wieland was the CEO of the International Center for Performance and Health for four years, creating a program for executives, athletes and individuals that offered services in medicine, physical therapy, nutrition, exercise physiology, psychology, and ancillary services such as yoga, strength training and indoor cycling.

An elite athlete herself, Wieland participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics as part of a 12-year stint on the United States National Field Hockey team as a goalkeeper. She helped the United States to a fifth-place finish in her hometown of Atlanta in 1996. The team also earned a silver medal at the 1995 Pan American Games and a bronze at the 1994 World Cup.

A two-time First-Team All-American at Iowa, Wieland was a finalist for the 1993 NCAA Woman of the Year. She led the Hawkeyes to the Final Four during each year of her career, with runner-up finishes in 1988 and 1992, and was inducted into the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Wieland also served six years as an assistant field hockey coach at Maryland (1993-94), Dartmouth (1994-95) and Iowa (1996-99). While at Maryland, she helped the Terps to a national championship and aided Iowa to a Big Ten title and #2 national ranking.

Wieland earned three degrees from the University of Iowa, including a Ph.D. in counseling psychology in 2004. She received a MBA from the Henry B. Tippie School of Management in 2002 and a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1992.

What They Are Saying About Dr. Andrea Wieland

"Penn has done its homework and has added a great resource and leader in Dr. Wieland. High Performance is ultimately about helping people be at their best in how they prepare, work and recover. Not only will this help Penn's student-athletes directly, but it's the opportunity to develop a high-performance culture which will foster collaboration and development across all staff and personnel. Andrea will do a great job for Penn." – Dr. Angus Mugford, Director of High Performance, Toronto Blue Jays
 
"Andrea is a driven and passionate person who cares deeply about her work and impacting the lives of others in positive ways. As her Olympic teammate, and now her colleague in the Ivy League, I know she will bring the same intensity to helping others raise their performance as she did to raise her own. Penn has found a gem in Andrea, and I know she will do a great job for the athletes, coaches and her performance team." - Jill Reeve, Head Field Hockey Coach, Brown University