(Portions of this story were taken from the American Southwest Conference website)

DALLAS, Texas – Katy Williams, a former Austin College women's basketball All-American, was among a group of speakers at the American Southwest Conference's annual Student-Athlete Advisory Committee meeting Monday in Dallas.

An associate with the Dallas-area Special Olympics program, Williams (pictured with 2012 Special Olympics Texas Female Athlete of the Year Leanne Owens), spoke to the ASC SAAC on the unique partnership with Division III.

ASC/Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division III National SAAC Representative Dalaine Whitlock, a senior soccer player at Concordia Texas, provided notes from the national level and also spoke about NCAA Division III's partnership with Special Olympics.

"I thought the ASC SAAC meeting was very informative this year," Whitlock said. "We heard from Special Olympics Texas on how we can further develop the Division III partnership. There are so many ways to get involved, and it really does make a huge impact on both the student-athlete and the Special Olympics athlete when they are involved in this unique partnership. It's something that both groups can greatly benefit from, and it was great to hear more about all of the opportunities institutions have to cultivate this new relationship and tradition."

While at Austin College, Williams was named the 2009-10 SCAC Women's Baskeball Player of the Year and earned All-Region and All-America honors after breaking the conference records for both rebounds in a career and highest rebounding average in a season as a senior. She was an All-SCAC player all four years of her career, was named the conference Newcomer of the Year as a freshman, and finished her career averaging a double-double. In addition to being a tremendous talent on the court, Williams was also a SCAC Academic Honor Roll member all four years of her career.