New staff alert! We are honored to have Emily Wujcik join our NDPA as the Operations Director. Emily has been involved with water safety since she first became a Lifeguard at her local YMCA over 15 years ago. Since then, Emily has continued to work in the world of aquatics by becoming a swimming instructor, a swim coach, and has run multiple aquatic facilities.
Emily has always enjoyed being in the water, as she grew up being on the swim team starting in 3rd grade, and started playing water polo in middle school. Her love for the water followed her to Slippery Rock University (SRU).
In 2015, Emily was a scholarship recipient for the NDPA annual educational conference. Since learning how important water safety education is to every person on this planet, she has been working with NDPA to help spread awareness. Emily graduated from SRU with a B.S. in Early Childhood and Special Education with a minor in Aquatics. While at SRU, she was a Swim Coach for the local swim team – the Slippery Rock Eels Swim Team from 2013-2016.
From there, Emily became the Graduate Assistant for Dr. Adam Katchmarchi while attending graduate school. She helped to put on the annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that year. She went on to earn her M.S. in Sports Management from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Emily then became the Aquatics and Safety Coordinator for Saint Louis University (SLU) for almost 5 years. While there, she managed a team of 45 students. Her team was made up of Lifeguards, Swimming Instructors, and Lifeguard Instructors. She managed the aquatics facilities which included an indoor 6-lane pool with a diving well, a spa, and 4 outdoor pools. Working with her staff, she ensured that all student and professional staff of 250 persons maintained their CPR, AED, and First Aid certifications from the American Red Cross.
Water safety has always been important to Emily. She continued to attend the NDPA conference and met Kimball McMullin. He and his wife, Lisa, tragically lost their son, Nicholas to a backyard drowning in 1982. In 2019, Nicholas’s parents founded the SWIM ON Foundation (Safer Waters In Memory Of Nicholas). Emily served as their Vice President from 2019 to June 2023. During her time with SWIM ON, she gave multiple presentations about how to be SAFER around the water. She met with local Girl Scout Troops, worked alongside the U.S. Army Corps. Of Engineers, and SafeKids St. Louis to spread awareness and education.
After her time at SLU, she became the Assistant Director of Aquatics for the University of Dayton (UD). There, with her team of students, they were responsible for the maintenance of their indoor 8-lane pool with a vortex, diving well, and spa. She worked closely with her other instructors to ensure that all student and professional staff were prepared to handle any emergency in their 125,470 sq. ft. facility. Emily continued to share the message of how to be safer around the water with UD students. Working with a small group of UD students, they co-created the Diving In Program. This program was for other students to learn about ways they can be safer around the water.
Now, Emily has come back to working for NDPA as our Operations Director. We are glad to have her fully onboard!
