NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Vanderbilt has removed the interim title,
making Candice Storey Lee the first woman to become an athletic
director in the Southeastern Conference.
With Vanderbilt’s announcement Wednesday, Lee now is among only
five women and the second black woman in charge of a Power Five
program. Daniel Diermeier, who takes over as Vanderbilt’s
chancellor on July 1, said Lee is the ”living embodiment” of the
university’s values and aspirations.
”Candice is perfectly positioned to lead our athletics program to
new heights of success on and off the field of play,” Diermeier
said. ”She has the drive, creativity, and perseverance to help
elevate our student-athletes, and the entire Vanderbilt Athletics
program.
The 41-year-old Lee, a former Commodores basketball captain, was
named interim athletic director Feb. 4 when Malcolm Turner resigned
after one year on the job for the former NBA G League president.
That made Lee the first woman to run athletics at Vanderbilt, and
she said she was incredibly honored and could not be in this
position without the support of Vanderbilt’s leadership, coaches,
staff and fans.
”There are challenges ahead and much uncertainty about what
college athletics can and should look like during a pandemic, but I
firmly believe that anything is possible if we all work together,”
Lee said.
Tennessee’s Joan Cronan was the only other woman to have been at
least an interim AD at an SEC school, the conference said. She was
the interim for the Volunteers for approximately three months in
2011. Cronan and Bev Lewis at Arkansas both were in charge of
women’s departments when both schools had separate athletics
departments.
Lee joins Carla Williams at Virginia as the only black women
athletic directors at a Power Five school, with Sandy Barbour at
Penn State, Jennifer Cohen at Washington and Heather Lyke at
Pittsburgh the other women ADs.
As a four-year letter winner for Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball
team, Lee graduated with a degree in human and organizational
development in 2000. She also received her master’s degree in
counseling from Vanderbilt in 2002, and in 2012, Lee earned her
doctorate from Vanderbilt in higher education administration.
She became Vanderbilt’s senior woman administrator in the athletics
department in 2004 and deputy athletic director in 2016. In that
role, Lee ran the day-to-day operations and also oversaw both
football and women’s basketball for the Commodores.
Lee is a former member of the NCAA women’s basketball rules
committee, former chair of the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse
committee and a former chair of the SEC Senior Woman
Administrators. Lee also is on the board of the directors for the
YWCA of Middle Tennessee and on the SEC Executive Committee.
Susan R. Wente, Vanderbilt’s interim chancellor and provost, said
Lee hit the ground running after being appointed interim athletic
director earlier this year.
”We will look back and see this decision as a major turning point
for Vanderbilt athletics, and our entire university,” Wente said.
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