A native of Clinton and current resident of Avon, Stephan brings an abundance of coaching and administrative experience and business acumen to Eastern. She currently serves as founder and owner of the Avon-based Dodgers, Inc., an elite travel lacrosse program for girls that trains and teaches grade-school student-athletes and which has grown to encompass 11 states since its creation ten years ago.

Stephans appointment followed the departments decision to split the head field hockey and womens lacrosse head coaching positions, both of which were previously held by Christine Hutchison since 2007. Hutchison remains as the fulltime head field hockey coach.

What intrigued me about the job, said Stephan upon her appointment, is that there is a lot of potential here. Ive learned over the years that Im really good at taking what is there what Ive been given and maximizing it. I think that one of my strengths is taking the type of student-athlete that I inherit, and helping them maximize their potential, added Stephan, whose previous collegiate coaching experience came as head womens lacrosse coach at the University of Saint Joseph for one year in 2011 and as a graduate assistant field hockey coach at Syracuse University in 1988.

While Stephan prides herself on an ability to maximize the available talent, she points to the universitys academic reputation as a selling point in her effort to attract potential recruits. I really feel that the academics are a lot stronger than I think some people in Connecticut realize. I think that Eastern is positioned very well to really make a dent recruiting-wise in the Northeast.

For 17 years beginning in 2000, Stephan coached womens varsity lacrosse at Avon, Canton, and Lewis Mills high schools and field hockey at Windsor High School, and also coached womens lacrosse for five years at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, where her teams won league titles every season and went on to reach the finals of the Western New England Prep School Class C championship three times, winning twice. Her teams at Avon qualified for the state tournament each year after her first season, reaching the Division I second round twice and the quarterfinals once.

Administratively, Stephan served as director of athletics and as assistant to the head of school at Ethel Walker and director of athletics at Canton High School.