The First African American Woman to Serve as Athletic Director in the Southeastern Conference

Candice Storey Lee has been named interim vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and interim athletic director at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Lee is Vanderbilt’s first woman athletic director. She is also the first African American woman to head an athletics program at a university in the Southeastern Conference.

Dr. Lee has been serving as associate vice chancellor and deputy athletic director. She has been the department’s senior woman administrator for the athletics program since 2004.

As a captain and four-year letter winner for Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball team, Lee graduated with a bachelor’s degree in human and organizational development in 2000. She also received her master’s degree in counseling from Vanderbilt in 2002. Dr. Lee earned a doctorate in higher education administration from Vanderbilt in 2012.

In accepting the milestone appointment, Dr. Lee said, “as someone who can personally appreciate the value of Vanderbilt’s unique student-athlete experience, I can say without reservation that we are building on a storied legacy of excellence and achievement — in athletics and in academics. Vanderbilt is a special place, and this is a very exciting time — we are charting the future course of Vanderbilt Athletics. I am excited to work with our coaches, our staff and our student-athletes as we move forward.”

Related Articles

2 COMMENTS

  1. Congratulations on this outstanding accomplishment. Your appointment will open many doors for future female athletes and scholars to hold similar positions. Again, Congratulations!

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

In Memoriam: Nathan Howard Cook, 1939-2024

Dr. Cook was a longtime faculty member and administrator at Lincoln University of Missouri. A full professor of biology, he held several leadership roles including vice president for academic affairs.

Featured Jobs