NDMU welcomes a new Athletics Director

By Micah Castelo

Last month, Notre Dame of Maryland University hired Renee Bostic as the new Director of Athletics and Wellness. Bostic will be managing all aspects of the intercollegiate athletics department and its programs in this role. She’s also the first African American athletics director in Notre Dame’s most recent intercollegiate athletic history.

“I’m so excited to be a part of Notre Dame,” says Bostic. “When I first found out about the job, I read up on the university’s mission. I found that my personal mantra—to be focused, fearless, and faithful—lined up perfectly with the university’s mission. And so I thought that this was the place for me to be.”

Although Bostic hails from Queens, NY, she’s lived in Baltimore for a year when she was working on a service program post-college. The New York native has also been in college athletics for more than 20 years. Prior to Notre Dame, Bostic held a position as the first female Athletic Director at Medgar Evers College, a CUNY institution in Brooklyn, NY. Before that, she’s been a women’s basketball coach at West Virginia State University (Institute, WV), Robert Morris College (Chicago, IL), and Hostos Community College (Bronx, NY). In all positions, Bostic successfully transformed the department—from increasing the number of female student-athletes by 30 percent at Medgar Evers to leading Robert Morris’s women’s basketball team to their first NAIA national tournament appearance.

Working at Notre Dame won’t be any different as Bostic already has high hopes in place. “I want to provide student athletes with the best experience they can possibly have,” Bostic says. For the upcoming year, she plans on increasing the number of student-athletes and making the teams a little more competitive on the field. She’s also interested in having more dialogue with student-athletes in the next few weeks and learning about what students believe would be beneficial to their experience as athletes.

“I’m pumped for all the games too,” Bostic adds. “I’m looking forward to developing a campaign to try and get more people to cheer our teams on. I find that it’s an important aspect that gives the athletes more fire to go forth when they’re out there competing.”

And when she’s not working as the director, Bostic likes to take breaks and relax. While she’s a golfer, she also enjoys retail shopping, attending concerts, and going out to dinners. “I’m trying to rediscover Baltimore and see what it has to offer,” she says.