Although Mrs. Jeanne Stangel, NDA’s new athletic director, doesn’t recall the exact moment she became passionate about her love for sports, she does remember starting to love the team concept of sports when she first started playing basketball in seventh grade.

She participated in basketball, volleyball and track throughout high school and was recruited to play college basketball at UW-Green Bay on scholarship. She explains that she has “always enjoyed the team camaraderie, the challenge of competition and the opportunity to represent a college institution.”

Before coming to NDA, Mrs. Stangel had previously worked in higher education for the past 14 years at UW-Green Bay. While at UWGB, she served in several different positions–a compliance officer in academic/tutoring services, associate athletic director, director of development and senior woman administrator.

Her passion and love for sports has followed her all the way to her new job at Notre Dame as athletic director. After having previously worked in multiple positions at UW-Green Bay, Stangel hopes to provide an exceptional experience for the student athletes at Notre Dame, while also supporting the school’s mission to develop each person as a whole.

She believes the perfect athletic experience would be “safe, healthy and rewarding while building character, teaching responsibility and providing opportunities to thrive as a member of an athletic team.”

Stangel is not only limited to the sports side of things, however. While at UWGB, she also attained the role of special assistant to the Chancellor, head of Government and Community Relations, and Vice Chancellor for Advancement. All of these positions gave way to a new position that Stangel now holds at NDA: Vice President of Institutional Advancement. This new title gives Stangel the responsibility for developing and implementing the strategic development plan for NDA.

This plan includes raising financial support for NDA through philanthropic giving and annual fundraising ventures like Phone-a-thon. She also oversees NDA’s marketing and communications area and is responsible for carrying out the initiatives from the strategic plans in both of these areas.

Although Mrs. Stangel is always on the run with her many responsibilities at these two positions, she still strives to maintain an active and balanced lifestyle. She loves watching all sports at NDA, particularly cherishing “the excitement of the competition and the reward of participating as an athlete.”

Stangel’s favorite aspect about being at Notre Dame is the community spirit she has found here. She explains that the students, parents, faculty, staff, donors, alumni and friends of NDA have extended an overwhelming welcome to her and readily offered their support.

“This is truly a healthy, positive culture at NDA, and I am honored to be a part of it,” she said.