RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Director of Athletics Marianne Reilly is pleased to announce the hiring of industry veteran Denise Thompson as the Senior Associate Athletic Director/External Operations and Senior Women Administrator (SWA).
"I'm excited to join Manhattan College Athletics as the Senior Woman Administrator and head the external operations department," said Thompson. "I'm grateful for this opportunity and can't wait to see the great content being shared and experience a fun-filled atmosphere for all of our student-athletes, staff, alumni, and fans to enjoy. Go Jaspers!"
Thompson arrives in Riverdale by way of the University of Delaware, where she held the title of Associate AD for Communications, Creative Services, and Multimedia. While with the Blue Hens, Thompson executed and led an overall strategy to effectively brand and promote the 21 Blue Hen Division I programs. Under her leadership, team Twitter accounts saw substantial growth, including football, men's basketball, and women's basketball, all experiencing more than 50-percent growth. Under her guidance, the Delaware athletics website went from 724,000 views to over 1.2 million. She also campaigned for two separate plays to be No. 1 on ESPN Top Plays.
Before she arrived at Delaware, she was the Assistant Commissioner for Communications and Externals Affairs for the Big Sky Conference. While at the conference level, Thompson was the officer in charge of news conferences/announcements and all appearances by the commissioner. She increased ticket revenue, corporate sponsorship donations, and halftime performance acts for the men's and women's basketball conference tournaments during that time. She also served as the sport administrator for cross country and track and field. Thompson spearheaded the conference's efforts in the yearly promotion of diversity and inclusion, Black History Month, and National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Thompson also held the position of Assistant Athletic Director for Communications at Northern Arizona. While in Flagstaff, Thompson served as the official spokesperson for the athletics department and was responsible for the department's creative vision by designing media guides and game programs. She also oversaw the launch of a new athletics site in 2017.
Thompson is a member of the College Sports Communicators, where she was honored with the 2020-21 CoSIDA President's Award, and is the current chair of the Racial and Social Justice Working Group.
