Staff Directory

Susan Lavenant serves as the Associate Director of Alumni Relations for Signature Events for the University of the Incarnate Word.  Her primary responsibilities in this role include creating, coordinating, and enhancing signature events to promote alumni relations which are designed to connect alumni with the University.

Lavenant is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio where she earned a bachelor’s degree in human resources. Her and her husband, Javier are proud UIW parents from the class of 2023 of their two sons.

She previously worked at Trinity University as the Assistant Director of Special Events under Alumni Relations and Development, Corporate Office of Vision Works in the Human Resources department and Pearson in the Human Resources department.

In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, volunteering and trying new BBQ restaurants.

Clarissa Gauna (Gown-ah) joined the University of the Incarnate Word as the Athletics Administrative Coordinator in January 2021. In this role, Gauna worked with the Athletic Director and senior staff on a daily basis to manage the administrative affairs of the department. Then, in July 2021, she moved into the Development Coordinator role where she ran the Cardinals Club, the fundraising arm of UIW Athletics. Currently, she serves as an Alumni Relations Manager, focusing on chapters, programs and reunions.

Prior to UIW, spending nearly three years with Texas Athletics, Gauna was a marketing intern/gameday leader who engaged with fans while overseeing other marketing interns, managing the schedule and ensuring game-day assignments were understood. In working with the marketing team for baseball, she created the Texas Baseball 360 External Plan for the 2020 season.

A San Antonio native, Gauna graduated from Incarnate Word High School before spending a year at the University of Texas at Tyler as a collegiate cheerleader. She spent the next three years on National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) Staff and obtained her bachelor’s in sociology with a sports media certificate from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020. Clarissa obtained her master's degree in sports management from UIW in May, 2023.

Callum Riley received his Bachelor of Psychology with a concentration in Business Marketing from UIW in 2013. He joined the Alumni Relations team in 2022 after serving UIW Athletics as the Director of Resource Development. Callum is a proud alumnus of the UIW men’s soccer program. In his time as a student-athlete at UIW, he helped the Cardinals to two NCAA national tournaments and earned All-American honors. Callum returned to his native England in 2014 and worked in marketing and communications roles in London before returning to south Texas in 2020. He provides outreach to UIW’s alumni through communications, events and initiatives. Please send Callum all of your alumni stories and announcements to share.