M. Dianne Murphy

Dianne Murphy has been Columbia University’s director of intercollegiate athletics and physical education since 2004, where she has overseen a number of initiatives for Columbia University's more than 700 student-athletes. These initiatives include the recruitment of several new high-level head coaches and administrators to the program and the establishment of the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2010-2011, Murphy was named to the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee and also worked in conjunction with the WBCA to develop a comprehensive leadership program for college women's basketball coaches, The Center for Coaching Excellence, at Columbia University.  Murphy came to Columbia after six years as director of athletics and recreation at the University of Denver, where she led the Pioneers' program from Division II to one of the nation's top Division I institutions. She previously served as the associate athletics director and the senior woman administrator at Cornell University from 1995 to 1998, where she oversaw nine Division I sports, as well as marketing and promotions, sports information, and alumni and booster activities. Murphy began her athletics administrative career as the assistant athletics director at Kentucky State University. She is very active working on issues of gender and race in the collegiate environment, and is involved with and has been awarded by numerous organizations for her efforts in this regard. Murphy holds a Ph.D. in administration and curriculum from Florida State University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Tennessee Technological University.

Dianne Murphy teaches Intercollegiate Athletics Administration.