Appointment of Director of Intercollegiate Athletics

I am delighted to announce that I have appointed Paula Smith to the position of director of intercollegiate athletics. She brings to this position a strong record of excellence in athletic administration, a national reputation as an energetic leader, and an unmatched history of supporting UCI’s student-athletes.

Twice UCI’s interim athletic director – first in 2007-08 and, most recently, since July 2018 – Paula Smith has served as deputy director of intercollegiate athletics since 2012. Prior to that, she was executive associate athletic director (2008 to 2012), senior associate athletic director (2006 to 2008) and assistant athletic director for academic and student services (2000 to 2001). She served as associate athletics director at our sister campus UC Riverside from 2001 to 2006. She began her career at the Big West Conference, rising from compliance intern to director of compliance to, for six years, assistant commissioner. She currently serves on the NCAA Division I Council and the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee, as well as, on our campus, the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, the Chancellor’s Advisory Council, and the Campus Ethics and Compliance Risk Committee.

I thank the search committee and its chair, Associate Chancellor Lars Walton, for their diligence and hard work.

Please join me in congratulating Paula Smith as she takes up her new role at UCI.

Chancellor Howard Gillman