Bucknell University Athletics
Hall of Fame
- Title:
- Senior Assoc. Dir. of Athletics, SWA
- Email:
- mrp016@bucknell.edu
- Phone:
- 570-577-1712
- Aiming for Justice -- Article in Winter 2021 issue of Bucknell Magazine on Maisha Kelly's anti-racism involvement
- Maisha Kelly to Take on New Role as Senior Associate AD for Development, Starting Nov. 1, 2019
- Maisha Kelly Named to NCAA Division I Council
Maisha Kelly, a member of the Bucknell Athletics senior administrative team since 2010, serves as senior associate director of athletics for development and senior woman administrator. Kelly is a key member of the department’s leadership team, where she serves as the sport administrator for women's basketball and plays a significant part in the department's long-range planning initiatives. In 2019, Kelly's primary role shifted to development and fundraising, where she is focused on increasing annual support for the Bison Club and spearheading the fundraising efforts for major capital projects related to Bison Athletics.
Prior to her transition to the development role, Kelly was a sport supervisor for several Bison programs, she handled reporting oversight for the Office of NCAA Compliance and Student Services, and she was an important liaison with the Bucknell faculty and deans as well as with the offices of Human Resources and Admissions and Financial Aid.
In addition, she has served as the University’s deputy Title IX coordinator while overseeing many of the department’s priorities, including important gender equity and minority opportunity initiatives. In 2020, Kelly launched the Bucknell Athletics Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, and she is also a member of the Patriot League Anti-Racism Commission. Her focus stretches beyond the scope of varsity athletics, as Kelly is an active member of the President's Diversity Council, an advisory and leadership team responsible for developing, overseeing and monitoring University-wide efforts to achieve Bucknell's commitment to diversity as a core institutional and educational value. The Council is tasked with developing and overseeing Bucknell's Strategic Plan for Diversity.Â
During her tenure at Bucknell, Kelly has taken a keen interest in the concept of student-athlete leadership. In 2011, she pioneered the Bucknell Athletics Leadership Institute, which was the department's first fully dedicated, comprehensive leadership development program. The program has since expanded in scope every year, it has been the target of significant alumni donations, and for the last several years has been under the direction of a full-time program coordinator.Â
In April 2018, Kelly was appointed by the NCAA Board of Directors to the NCAA Division I Council, where she represents the Patriot League on important NCAA policy matters. Kelly is also a member of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee. She previously served as a member of the Division I Nominating Committee and the NCAA Division I Track and Field Committee, where she was appointed Chair in her final year of service. Kelly is a 2019 graduate of the NCAA Pathway Program.
Kelly came to Bucknell from the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, where she had served as an assistant director of championships since 2008. In that role she worked with individual coaches and administrators, coaching bodies, sport committees and site hosts for various NCAA Championship events. Kelly was also the sport leader for swimming and diving, providing direction to NCAA staff on issues pertaining to that sport, and she was a member of the USA Swimming and USA Diving Board of Directors.
Prior to her stint at the NCAA, Kelly spent three years at Rutgers, where she was an athletic academic advisor and tutoring coordinator. In that capacity she served as an advisor to student-athletes while communicating with faculty and deans on academic and social issues. Kelly monitored student-athletes’ academic progress and coordinated tutoring when necessary. She also served as Rutgers’ CHAMPS/Life Skills and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) advisor, while also sitting on the Rutgers Diversity Council, RU Safe and the Bias Prevention, LGBT and Judicial Affairs committees. While at Rutgers, Kelly also served on the NCAA Division I Track and Field Committee and the Big East Cross Country and Track and Field Committee.
In 2004-05, Kelly served as academic counselor for student-athletes at Vanderbilt, where she worked closely with the football and men’s basketball programs.
Kelly is a 2000 graduate of Saint Joseph’s University, where she captained the track and field team and earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship based on her contributions both on the track and in the classroom. She later spent three seasons as an assistant track and field coach at Saint Joe’s while also teaching sixth-grade social studies and science at the Waldron Mercy Academy in Merion, Pa.
In 2005, Kelly received her master’s of education degree in sport and recreation administration from Temple University.
Kelly is a member of the Women Leaders in College Sports and a graduate of the NCAA Leadership Institute for Ethnic and Minority Females.
Kelly and her husband, Kevin, an assistant track and field coach at Penn State, reside in Lewisburg with their two young children, Gregory and Kennedy.
