Shaw names Ford-Kee full-time Associate AD/SWA

June 17, 2004 

Shaw University has named Dianthia Ford-Kee as its Associate Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator.  Shaw University received the NCAA Division II Strategic Alliance Enhancement Matching Program Grant to establish the new position.  The grant will assist Shaw University over a three-year period in funding a full-time (non-coaching) position in the athletics department’s senior management staff. 

Dianthia Ford-Kee

Dr. Clarence G. Newsome, President of Shaw University, endorsed this position in his efforts of restructuring Shaw University’s athletics department to enhance communications between student-athletes, faculty and staff, to provide additional senior management leadership in the athletic department, and most importantly enhance the role of women on the senior management staff in athletics.

Some of her responsibilities will be to assist the administration and the director of athletics with the daily operation of the intercollegiate athletics programs, to include but not be limited to:  financial planning and budgeting, special events planning, contract negotiations and compliance.  She will also serve as the athletics representative when working with internal University committees and community activities.  Ford-Kee will continue to serve as the advise to the University’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Ford-Kee, who has worked in the athletics department for 14 years as the head volleyball and head softball coach, will retire her coaching duties.  Under her leadership the volleyball team compiled a record of 247-158 in 14 seasons.  Her teams have won seven consecutive CIAA Eastern Division Crowns from 1997 to 2003 and the Lady Bears won the CIAA Championship in 1995.  Affectionately known as ‘Coach D’, she was named CIAA Coach of the Year after the 1995 and 2001 seasons. 

The softball team has experienced similar success.  The teams compiled an overall record of 309-207 and the Lady Bears won the CIAA Championship in 1994, 1996 and 2003.  The softball team won four consecutive Eastern Division Crowns from 2001 through 2004.  In 2003 Ford-Kee took the softball team to Shaw University’s first NCAA Division II Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament appearance.

Ford-Kee is a member of the NCAA Committee for Women’s Athletics. She served on the sub-committee responsible for developing the first Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) brochure to educate NCAA members about the unique role of the SWA.  Ford-Kee also worked on the first sub-committee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.  She currently represents the Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association (CIAA) on the NCAA Division II Management Council. 

Ford-Kee earned the Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Fayetteville State University and the Master of Arts in Public Affairs from Northern Illinois University.  She is married to Preston Kee, Jr. and she is the mother of Brandon and Fannezha Ford and Iman Kee.