Jennifer Cohen, who has been a UW athletic department administrator since 1998, will replace departing AD Scott Woodward after he leaves for Texas A&M.
Jennifer Cohen, a University of Washington administrator the past 15 years, has been tabbed as the Huskies’ interim athletic director, effective Feb. 1.
Cohen, a senior associate athletic director who oversees football, baseball and the department’s development efforts, is believed to be a leading candidate to replace Scott Woodward as UW’s permanent athletic director.
Woodward, the Huskies’ athletic director since 2008, is leaving UW at the end of the month to be the athletic director at Texas A&M.
“With her years of experience as a senior administrator in our athletic department, Jen will provide excellent leadership as we undertake a national search for a new athletic director,” UW President Ana Mari Cauce said Tuesday in a statement.
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“She understands the needs of the department very well and has a birds-eye view of the challenges it faces, particularly at this time of escalating costs and finite revenues. Her work in managing major fundraising projects will serve her very well in this regard. We’re fortunate to have her able to step right into this role.”
The university is forming a committee to help conduct a national search for the next athletic director.
Cohen, 46, a Tacoma native, joined the UW athletic department in 1998 as an assistant director of development. She later worked in the university’s central development office focusing on fundraising efforts for the office of undergraduate education. She also spent time with UW’s regional-gifts program before returning to athletics to oversee the department’s major-gifts program.
Cohen and her team spearheaded the “Drive for Husky Stadium” campaign, in which the department raised more than $50 million in gifts for the renovation of Husky Stadium, which was completed in August 2013.