Calhoun named new AD

Penn Provost Vincent Price recently announced that M. Grace Calhoun has been named director of recreation and intercollegiate athletics at the University, effective July 1.

Calhoun will succeed Steve Bilsky, who has led Penn Athletics for 20 years. She is currently director of athletics and assistant vice president at Loyola University Chicago, where she has expanded campus partnerships and engagement, opened new facilities, recruited new coaches, and enhanced external revenue streams.

Winner of the 2009 Nell Jackson Administrator of the Year Award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, Calhoun brings with her Ivy League experience as both a student-athlete at Brown University and an athletics administrator at Dartmouth College. She has also served in leadership roles at Indiana University, Saint Francis University, the University of Florida, and as associate executive director of the Patriot League.

“We set out to find a star, and we did,” says Penn President Amy Gutmann. “Dr. Calhoun brings to Penn an insurmountable treasure of experience that will help us build on the stellar legacy of Steve Bilsky.”

Calhoun will be the first woman to serve as athletic director at Penn, and the first female athletic director in Big 5 history.

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