UK Announces Lakia Bailey as Sr. Creative Director, Adds Austin Christensen as Director of Strategic Communication
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Athletics has announced the promotion of Lakia Bailey to Senior Creative Director and the addition of Austin Christensen as the Director of Strategic Communication, further strengthening the department’s Brand and Content team.
Christensen, who started in April, will lead communications strategy for Men’s Basketball and department social media amongst other responsibilities.
Bailey has served on the UK Athletics creative services staff for five years in increasingly responsible roles. As senior creative director, Bailey will lead the award-winning Creative Services team, the artistic graphic-design arm of UK Athletics, including Kim Troxall, who will take on a role leading the in-sport creative team.
Since joining the Wildcats in 2021, Bailey has become one of the department’s most accomplished creative leaders, producing award-winning campaigns and helping elevate Kentucky’s brand through innovative storytelling and strategic content.
As assistant creative director from 2021-23, Bailey led creative efforts for women’s basketball, volleyball and softball. She worked on the nationally recognized women’s basketball #CrownHer campaign honoring Kentucky legend and WNBA No. 1 overall draft pick Rhyne Howard generated more than three million social impressions, helped produce a sellout crowd for Howard’s Senior Night and earned Bailey the 2022 Lytho Best Content Creator Award.
Promoted to Creative Director in 2023, Bailey assumed oversight of Kentucky Football’s creative strategy and helped shape the athletics department visually. Her work has strengthened branding efforts and positioned Kentucky among the nation’s leaders in collegiate creative content.
Before joining Kentucky Athletics, Bailey, a native of Abbeville, South Carolina, spent the first nine years (2012-21) of her career at Pikeville, where she held roles in athletics communications and university marketing.
She also worked as a corporate sales account executive and graphic designer with the Lexington Legends, where she gained experience in branding, marketing and fan engagement.
A former four-year letterwinner on the women’s basketball team at Pikeville, Bailey earned her bachelor’s degree in communication in 2011.
Read more on Lakia Bailey – BIO
Kentucky also welcomes Christensen as the Director of Strategic Communication.
In his new role, he will work with the men’s basketball program, oversee creative strategy and content development while collaborating across the department to produce innovative digital, social and recruiting content that continues to elevate the Kentucky brand. Since starting at UK in April 2026, Christensen has already led multiple storytelling successes on social media and other owned platforms.
Christensen joins the Wildcats after building a strong reputation as one of college athletics’ emerging creative professionals.
Christensen joins Kentucky after serving as the Director of Athletic Communications at the University of Idaho, where he led communications and digital strategy for Vandal football while overseeing the department’s primary social media platforms and website. He spearheaded the nationally recognized Fightin’ Taters rebrand, generating more than $7 million in earned media value and reaching an audience of more than 200 million people.
Prior to Idaho, Christensen held athletic communications positions at Clemson and Weber State, where he helped drive significant growth in digital engagement and brand visibility.
A United States Air Force veteran, he was an honor graduate from Basic Military Training, graduating with honors as a Chinese linguist from the prestigious Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.
A native of Salt Lake City, Christensen graduated summa cum laude with his bachelor’s degree in applied management from Grand Canyon University. He is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese.
Read more on Austin Christensen – BIO
ABOUT UK ATHLETICS STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION & CREATIVE SERVICES
The UK Athletics Strategic Communication team serves as the hub for UK Athletics communication strategy and creative content, focused on strengthening the Athletics brand, online fan engagement and corporate communication. The team’s communication strategy areas of focus include including brand message management, social media, graphic design and photography.
ABOUT UK ATHLETICS
UK Athletics is a leader in college sports, sponsoring 23 varsity sports teams (12 women’s teams, 10 men’s teams, plus the coed rifle team) and hundreds of student-athletes, competing for championships, ensuring their education and well-being, and providing opportunities for the present and future. The UK Athletics Department operates as Champions Blue, LLC, with J Batt taking over leadership as Champions Blue CEO and UK Athletics Director. The non-profit holding company, a first of its kind in college athletics, is designed to provide the department with the flexibility to unlock new revenue streams through public-private partnerships and potentially other transactions, such as real estate.
