University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Mary DiStanislao is in her first year as the Special Advisor to the Director of Athletics at Penn. She rejoined Penn Athletics in March 2024 following a career that included 14 years as the Senior Associate AD from 1998-2012.
 
In her current role, she serves as the sport administrator for wrestling, men’s and women’s swimming, and heavyweight, lightweight and women’s rowing. She advises and collaborates with the T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation and leads the Pottruck Center for Student-Athlete Success.
 
She was a Senior Associate AD at Penn from 1999-2012, where she managed nineteen intercollegiate teams and campus recreation in addition to compliance, sports medicine and student services. She also served as DRIA’s Senior Woman Administrator.
 
Mary most recently served as the Director of Graduate Medical Education at Jefferson Health and was also Executive Vice President at Marquette University.
 
She began her career as a head basketball coach at Northwestern and Notre Dame. As the first varsity head coach at Northwestern, she led the Wildcats to two Big Ten and regional championships in four years and was a two-time National Coach of the Year nominee. Moving on to the University of Notre Dame in 1980, DiStanislao ushered the Fighting Irish from Division III to a competitive Division I program. Her teams won two North Star Conference championships and she was named the conference Coach of the Year twice.
 
She started her coaching career at Immaculata College as an assistant coach under Hall of Fame Head Coach Cathy Rush and helped guide the Mighty Macs to back-to-back AIAW national championship games.
 
After retiring from coaching and before joining Penn, DiStanislao spent eight years in the private sector in various management positions.
 
DiStanislao has an accomplished educational background to complement her professional success. She earned her doctorate in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania. She received an MBA from Northwestern’s J.L. Kellogg School of Management, and a master of arts from the school of education and social policy there. She began with a bachelor of science in physical education from Douglass College at Rutgers University.