Candice Storey Lee, Jill Redmond and Colleen Sorem appointed to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee

Vanderbilt Director of Athletics Candice Storey Lee, Missouri Valley Conference Deputy Commissioner Jill Redmond and Maryland Interim Athletics Director Colleen Sorem have been appointed to serve on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee.

Lee will be filling the position vacated by Derita Dawkins of Arkansas, who served as committee chair in 2024-25 in the final year of her five years on the committee. Redmond fills the position vacated by Lizzie Gomez, who had served on the committee since 2022 and whose term was set to expire at the end of August. Gomez recently announced a move from the Southland Conference to the Big 12 Conference. Sorem replaces five-year committee veteran Deneé Barracato of Northwestern, who was recently named multiarea director for the Chicagoland Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Redmond and Sorem’s appointments are effective immediately, while Lee’s term will begin Sept. 1.  

Named Vanderbilt director of athletics in May 2020, Lee is Vanderbilt’s first female athletics director and the first Black woman to head a Southeastern Conference athletics program. A former member of the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team, Lee has earned undergraduate, master’s and doctorate degrees from the Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development and has been a leader in athletics and the wider Vanderbilt community since arriving on campus as a first-year student in 1996.

“It’s a great honor to serve and support a sport that has meant so much to me personally and professionally,” Lee said. “I remember the thrill of competing with my teammates in the NCAA tournament, and I look forward to being a part of a committee that helps make that dream come true for so many talented student-athletes.”

Redmond joined the Missouri Valley in August 2023 and is involved with all organizational and operational aspects of the conference. She came to the conference after spending 13 years at the Atlantic 10 Conference. Redmond, who also has previously worked in the Richmond, Dartmouth and Benedictine (Illinois) athletics departments, completed her undergraduate degree at DePaul, where she was a track and field student-athlete, and earned a master’s degree from Benedictine.

“I am truly honored and humbled to represent the Missouri Valley Conference on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee,” Redmond said. “It is a privilege to serve the Division I membership and the sport of women’s basketball alongside such outstanding professionals on the committee and within the NCAA national office.”

Sorem, who has worked at Maryland for 10 years, served as Maryland’s senior deputy athletics director/chief operating officer before being named interim athletics director March 21. Before Maryland, Sorem was a senior associate athletics director at Towson and associate athletics director at Florida Gulf Coast. She joined the Florida Gulf Coast staff in 2008 after six years at UMass Lowell. Sorem is a 2000 graduate of James Madison and obtained her master’s from Alabama in 2002.

“I am truly honored to be selected to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee,” Sorem said. “At Maryland, we have a long tradition of success and support for women’s basketball, and representing the Big Ten Conference in this capacity is an opportunity I accept with great pride. The women’s game has been experiencing an exciting and unprecedented amount of growth over the past few years. As someone who is passionate about the game and supporting our fearless women, I look forward to contributing to the future of women’s basketball alongside my fellow committee members.”

Lee, Redmond and Sorem will be part of the 12-member committee that will be chaired in 2025-26 by Amanda Braun, director of athletics at Milwaukee. Other committee members include Vicky Chun of Yale; Liz Darger of Brigham Young; Jill Bodensteiner of Saint Joseph’s; Amy Folan of Central Michigan; Alex Gary of Western Carolina; Josh Heird of Louisville; Jeff Konya of San Jose State; and Lynn Tighe of Villanova.