Fewer than 16 percent of Division I colleges have a woman running their athletic department, according to research by Arizona State and Women Leaders in Sports. Katreshia Louis-Verrett took that job at North Carolina A&T on September 1, and she is the second woman to hold it in the university’s 135 years.
She has heard the question that comes with it. “It’s interesting because people always say, as a female, what qualities do you bring?” she said. “But I just feel like anyone, regardless of what your gender is, is capable of doing this job. I think we’re at a time where everyone knows that this job is tough, no matter who you are.”
Louis-Verrett is not new to Greensboro. She was an associate athletic director at A&T from 2011 to 2017, handling compliance and department resources, before becoming deputy athletics director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She ran track at Miami and won two Big East titles. “I have a great deal of love for North Carolina A&T, so of course I was thrilled to be back,” she said.
The only woman who held the post before her was DeLores “Dee” Todd, from 2005 to 2007. Under Todd the school built a track and field facility and became the first HBCU to host an NCAA Division I regional championship, in 2006.
Louis-Verrett describes the department as a small village that sends people out and takes them back in. “Anybody in our village will have to travel and compete, and then they come back to the village,” she said. “It’s our job to make sure they have all they need to pack up and leave to be successful, and then come back, regroup and go to class.”
Morgan Rodriguez, a sophomore on the women’s golf team, said she can already tell the difference. “You can tell she really cares about the program and the athletes she’s working with,” Rodriguez said.
What Louis-Verrett says she wants left behind is not a win column. “My hope is to be able to transform this department to the point where the sky is the limit for the next person who comes behind me,” she said. “I want athletics to meet the same muster that the campus has met. That would be my legacy.”
