Updated

PITTSBURGH (AP) Pittsburgh has hired Heather Lyke of Eastern Michigan as athletic director. She is the first woman to hold the job at Pitt.

Pitt announced the hiring Monday. She succeeds Scott Barnes, who left in January to become athletic director at Oregon State.

Lyke was the athletic director at Eastern Michigan, where she revitalized a department following decades of decline. She spent nearly four years at the school, a time in which its football team emerged from years of struggle to reach a bowl game last December for the first time in 29 years.

Lyke also worked as an assistant athletic director at Ohio State and Cincinnati. She is from Canton, Ohio, and played college softball at Michigan.