University of Maryland Athletics

Adaeze Alaeze was promoted to the Program Director, Student-Athlete Career Development in July 2023 after serving as the Coordinator, Student-Athlete Development upon her initial arrival to the University of Maryland. She enters her third school year working with the Gossett Center in 2024-25. 
 
Alaeze, a Baltimore native, was a former Division I standout women's basketball player at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where she received her Bachelors of Science in Accounting. Following her collegiate career, she played professional basketball in Spain (Vigo and Tenerife, Canary Islands) and served as a member of the Senior Women's Nigerian National Basketball team.
 
She later returned to VCU and received her Master's of Business in Sport Leadership from the Center for Sport Leadership program (CSL). She began her athletic career at Indiana University as their Excellence Academy, Leadership and Life Skills intern where she aided in their peer mentor program, monthly freshman programming and provided supervision for SAAC and other minority student-athlete groups. 
 
Alaeze then accepted the NCAA Ethnic Minority and Women's Grant program at Springfield College in Massachusetts as the Coordinator of Student-Athlete Development and Sports Communications Assistant.  Later that year, Alaeze was promoted to the Assistant Athletic Director of Recruiting, Retention and Student-Athlete Development/Athletic Diversity and Inclusion Designee. In this role, she had a dual role reporting directly to the Athletic Director and the Vice President of  Admissions Enrollment at the college. Tracking and monitoring recruitment, retention and community service efforts, whilst overseeing all student-athlete development initiatives and programming. She was an essential part of an inaugural DEI fashion show: "For the Culture", where she partnered with the Office of Inclusion to highlight the different identities of our student and campus body. 
 
Throughout her journey in athletics, Alaeze has participated in multiple NCAA professional development opportunities: Emerging Leaders Seminar, the Effective Facilitation Workshop, DISC facilitator, facilitator for the Student-Athlete Leadership Forum, aided in the onboarding and facilitation process of the EMW Grant for the new cohort. 
 
A major advocate for all things diversity, equity and inclusion - she hopes to continue to inspire and educate the next generation of students to utilize their voice and to see themselves as more than athletes! 

Updated July 6, 2024