Shippensburg University Athletics

Carrie Michaels serves Shippensburg University as its Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator (SWA). The 2025-26 academic year marks her 16th year as an associate director, her 18th year with Raider athletics, and her 20th year overall at Shippensburg University. 
  
Michaels intercollegiate experience includes the overall development and management of NCAA athletics with responsibilities that include budget oversight, supervision, strategic planning, fundraising, policy management, selection and evaluation of department personnel, facility improvement planning and project management, licensing and branding, game operations and promotions, and staff and student-athlete development and experience. She is a member of the senior leadership team and serves as the sport program administrator for baseball, men’s basketball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, and men’s and women’s swimming along with overseeing the divisions of sports medicine and equipment.
 
Michaels serves as the Title IX Coordinator for athletics equity. She is proficient in gender equity evaluation and plan development and has worked specifically with university legal counsel and the Office for Civil Rights to address compliance issues. Her professional development includes training at the institution, conference, regional, and national levels along with certification through the National Association of College and University Attorneys.

Among Michaels work is her participation in professional development and involvement on committees at varying levels. She recently concluded a four-year term on the NCAA Division II Management Council including one-year tenures as chair and vice-chair. As Management Council chair, Michaels  served as a member of the NCAA Board of Governors, Presidents Council, Administrative Committee, and Planning and Finance Committee, in addition to multiple other NCAA affiliated groups.
 
She also provided the Keynote Address to the Division II membership at the 2024 NCAA Convention and served as emcee for the Division II 50th Anniversary Celebration. Michaels also served on both the NCAA Division II Advisory Group and the NCAA Division II Implementation Committee. She chaired the Championships Subcommittee. Further, she has worked as a representative on several NCAA Division II Regional Advisory Committees as well as chaired the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s National Tennis Committee.
 
In June 2025, Michaels was selected as one of 22 administrators across all three NCAA divisions to its cohort for the 2025-26 Pathway Program, a yearlong initiative designed to prepare senior-level athletics administrators for their next career step as directors of athletics or conference commissioners.
 
Michaels was named the NCAA Division II Administrator of the Year by Women Leaders in Sports. She has presented multiple times at varying national conventions and conferences including NACDA, NCAA, and WLS, and is a graduate of the WLS Leadership Enhancement Institute. At the conference level, Michaels was chair of the PSAC Athletics Administrators, SWA Committee, and Championships Committee, along with serving as a member of the PSAC Executive Committee and Social Justice Taskforce. 

Michaels came to Shippensburg in September 2006 and worked for two years as the Interim Coordinator of Academic Support Services for Student-Athletes. She was the Acting Associate Director of Athletics from April 2010 through November 2011 before earning a permanent appointment to her position. She was SU’s Assistant Athletic Director from 2008 to 2010.
 
Before Shippensburg, Michaels served as the Assistant to the Athletics Director at Slippery Rock University where she coordinated all academic support services for student-athletes, in addition to directing athletic fundraising and camps and conferences. Prior to that position, Michaels served as the Athletics Academic Coordinator and was an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach. After Slippery Rock, Michaels served as the Commissioner of the Atlantic Women’s Colleges Conference.
 
Michaels earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminal Justice at Duquesne University where she also competed as a student-athlete in the sport of basketball. She earned her master’s degree in Sport Management at Slippery Rock University and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration from California University.
 
Michaels is a full professor and serves as the faculty chair of the Department of Athletics.