General | April 25, 2023
PHILADELPHIA – Shelbi Long, a professional with two decades of experience in campus recreation, has been named the Associate AD/Director of Campus Recreation at the University of Pennsylvania, it was announced today. Long was most recently the Director of Campus Recreation at Sonoma State University for the past four years.
"We are thrilled to welcome Shelbi to lead our campus recreation department," Alanna Shanahan, the T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W'69 Director of Athletics and Recreation said. "She has demonstrated the experience and desire in her career to collaborate with key campus partners to deliver a combined holistic wellness approach to support the needs of our campus community. We were encouraged by her innovative thoughts around the future of Penn Campus Recreation and her enthusiasm for promoting an inclusive environment at our recreational facilities and reducing barriers to participation. We can't wait for Shelbi to get started this summer."
"I'm excited to join the Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics at Penn," Long said. "Especially knowing the rich history of Penn, it's an honor to lead an amazing team of staff and students. I'm passionate about creating an inclusive place where there's a little bit of something for everyone and that's what sold me on Penn. I'm ready to get to work."
A 2002 graduate of Lock Haven University in health and physical education, Long makes the move back East to lead Penn's expansive campus recreation program. She began her career while pursuing a master's in liberal arts at Lock Haven as the graduate assistant for intramural sports before taking a full-time role at Penn State Altoona as the assistant director of campus recreation from 2004-07.
She moved to the West Coast in 2007 as coordinator of recreation and later associate director of recreation at Cal State Polytechnic Pomona where she stayed for 12 years and provided leadership for the oversight, development and evaluation of intramurals, sport clubs, fitness, adventure education, camps and marketing with an annual participation of more than 10,000 students, faculty, staff and alumni. Long also provided leadership in planning for a new $60m recreation center and developed the recreation programs budget to meet expense and revenue goals for a $4m budget. In 2019, Long became director of campus recreation at Sonoma State University, providing leadership of the recreation operation and 59,000 square foot complex and oversight of a $3m budget.
Long will officially begin her duties on June 26.
