New Director of Athletics and Chair of Physical Education​​

Dear Members of the Trinity Community,

It is with great delight and enthusiasm that we announce that Drew Galbraith has been named Trinity College’s next director of athletics and chair of physical education. Drew comes to us with more than 20 years of experience in higher education, the last 13 of those at Dartmouth College, where he is currently senior associate director of athletics and executive director of Dartmouth Peak Performance, a program that integrates services and resources to help student-athletes achieve excellence.

Drew rose to the top of an enormously talented, highly qualified, and diverse candidate pool in a national search conducted with the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer. Drew’s depth of experience, his coaching and teaching philosophy, and his understanding of and admiration for the role of athletics at Trinity College made him a truly exceptional fit.

We are enormously proud of our athletics program and all of our teams and student-athletes. Ever since Trinity played its first baseball game in 1868, athletics have played a central role in defining who we are as a community and the broad student experience at Trinity. We couldn’t be more pleased that Drew will be leading this critical program to an exciting future.

As senior associate athletic director since 2008, Drew has helped lead Dartmouth’s comprehensive athletics program of 35 varsity teams, 33 club sports, and 24 intramural sports. He serves as sport administrator for the Dartmouth Big Green football program, as well as for women’s rugby and men’s and women’s cross country and track and field. Over the years, he has served as sport administrator for 13 other teams at Dartmouth, overseeing coaches and all aspects of their programs. He also serves as a liaison to health professionals who work with student-athletes, and he has served previously on the NCAA Division I Administration Cabinet, the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee, and the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Skiing Committee.

Meanwhile, Drew has played an enormous role in the development of Dartmouth Peak Performance, which has helped more than 1,000 varsity athletes develop as leaders in their sports, in the classroom, and on campus. The program, launched in 2011, has grown to encompass a staff of 41 full-time professionals and has met ambitious current-use and endowment fundraising goals.

After earning both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the College of William & Mary, Drew started his career in media relations and broadcasting at Virginia Commonwealth University. He joined Dartmouth as associate director of athletics in 2004 after serving in compliance roles in the athletics departments at William & Mary and the University of Nebraska Omaha.

In addition to his highly relevant experience in athletics, Drew’s belief in the importance of strategic planning—and his experience developing such plans and using them to advance the department toward its goals in support of an institution’s mission—impressed us. And his focus on the student-athlete and the development of students as leaders aligns perfectly with our own philosophy and approach to athletics. It doesn’t hurt that he’s been associated with lots of success at Dartmouth, either, including in 2015, when he oversaw the football team’s first Ivy League title since 1996. We love championships and look forward to many more under Drew’s leadership!

Drew’s references spoke highly of him as a very thoughtful and strategic leader. They believe that Drew’s efforts will contribute to the overall student experience and that his appreciation for the scholar-athlete will help students discover their academic passions in our liberal arts setting.

Our deepest thanks go to all who participated in this important search, sharing ideas and thoughts, nominating candidates, and more, and especially to those alumni who participated in interviews with finalists and the members of the search committee (led by Joe):

• Chris French, Director of Principal Gifts and International Advancement
• Christoph Geiss, Professor of Physics and Environmental Science
• Paul Mounds ’07, Board of Trustees Member and Former Student-Athlete
• Angel B. Pérez, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success
• Robin Sheppard M’76, Professor of Physical Education, Emerita; Former Associate Director of Athletics; and Former Coach
• Melanie Stein, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Mathematics

​Our thanks and appreciation as well to Kristen Noone for her steadfast interim leadership of the department since June. She will continue to serve as interim athletics director until Drew arrives.

We’ll have many occasions to welcome and celebrate Drew, who will be joining us in January, and in the meantime, you might spot him on the sidelines occasionally. What a great day to be a Bantam!

Sincerely,

Joanne Berger-Sweeney

President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience

Joe DiChristina

Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Campus Life