‘I was an associate dean and now I’m posing in bikinis.’

Nina Cash can credit a vacation packing mishap for helping her unlock an encore career: swimsuit model.

Cash, 57, was traveling with her family in Australia in December 2022, and needed to buy swimwear.

“It was their summer [there], all the bathing suits were sold out. The only one that was left in my size was a two-piece, leopard bikini … so my husband took just regular snapshots of me on the beach, saying Happy New Year to the kids and whatnot and that night, we look at the pictures,” Cash tells Yahoo Entertainment.

Her confidence in the photos was on display, which inspired Cash to throw caution to the wind and apply to the Sports Illustrated Swim Search to be featured in the magazine’s 2024 issue, which is also its 60th anniversary. The search is “an annual open casting call that allows aspiring and established models to connect with the SI Swimsuit team in the hopes of being featured in the annual issue,” per the magazine.

With the time difference, Cash got it in under the wire, just 45 minutes before the submission window ended on Jan. 1 in the U.S.

Then she waited for months. It wasn’t until Oct. 20 when she learned that Sports Illustrated had named its seven rookie finalists for its May 2024 issue – and she was one of them.

“It’s still a pinch me moment,” she explains. “Just a little over a year ago, I was an associate dean and now I’m posing in bikinis.”

‘Wouldn’t it be amazing to be in a magazine like this?’

Cash said she was encouraged to apply to the competition after seeing photos of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s Kathy Jacobs, who became “the oldest rookie” in 2021 at age 57.

“So I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to apply for this. This could be an encore career for me.’ Kind of joking, but not,” she says. “I remember back in 1984, when I was a senior in high school, Cheryl Tiegs was on the cover and she’s an O.G., she’s just gorgeous. I remember being in high school thinking, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be amazing to be in a magazine like this?'”

Cash cites Tiegs, as well as Carol Alt, Roshumba Williams and Paulina Porizkova as modeling inspirations.

“I applaud all those women, I look up to them,” she says.

Before Cash tried her hand at modeling, she worked in the university system as an associate dean, holding positions at California State University, Long Beach and Cal State University, Los Angeles. Currently, she’s consulting at Cal State University, Fullerton.

She lives in Long Beach, Calif., with her husband and is mom to three daughters.

Cash, who is Filipino, grew up in a Catholic and military family, where she said it’s typical to be more modest of your accomplishments. Now that she’s stepping out with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, she wants to “Show the Filipino and the Asian community that we can do it. We’re not just on the back burner, we’re not just silent and quiet.”

Similarly to when she applied, Cash coincidentally was traveling for work when she found out she was selected as a rookie.

“[Sports Illustrated called] this mandatory Zoom meeting. So I got home and I was super jet lagged. I had no idea about what the meeting was going to be about. I didn’t know if it was just going to be me, it was gonna be the team, whatever,” she explains. “I was happily surprised to see that the seven of us were on the call. … At first, when [editor in chief MJ Day] said, ‘I’m here to let you know that you are all going to be rookies’ and she held up a black bathing suit that said Rookie 2024. I was like, ‘Wait … am I seeing this correctly?’ Then when it dawned on all of us — oh my gosh, it was magic.”

Cash was stunned, but she also felt the opportunity was hers for the taking.

According to SI Swim, this is the first time the publication has declared all seven Swim Search finalists as co-winners. Cash’s cohort includes Achieng Agutu, Sharina Gutierrez, Penny Lane, Brittney Nicole, Jena Sims and Berkleigh Wright.

“I was thrilled not only that I was named a rookie, but that I got to share it with the other six lovely ladies. I call them my lovelies because the next oldest person, I’m 24 years older than her, so they can be my babies. I have kids their age,” she says.

While fans have to wait to see Cash in the May 2024 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, she hopes to serve as inspiration to those who feel like age or ethnicity might hold them back with their dreams.

“What SI is doing is they’re just bringing the real people to the real masses,” she says. “A lot of people are embracing the fact that women who are older, who have gray hair, they’re not washed up. They’re not lead out to pasture. They’re not frail. We could still be sexy, we could still be beautiful in our own way.”