Donna (Mulhern) Woodruff, an administrator with more than 30 years of experience in college athletics, was named assistant vice president and director of athletics at Loyola University Maryland May 23, 2017, and was promoted to associate vice president and director of athletics in November 2024. She is in her eighth year leading the Greyhounds.
Woodruff came to Loyola after spending 13 years at Stony Brook University where she had served as the Deputy Director of Athletics since July 2014.
During her first seven years at Loyola, the Greyhounds won 13 Patriot League regular-season and 11 conference tournament titles. The men's and women's lacrosse teams advanced to nine NCAA Championships, each winning games in the tournament and earning top-10 national rankings with the men's team rising as high as No. 1. Men’s golf went to two-straight NCAA Championships and earned a third bid in seven years in 2024, and The men's soccer team returned to NCAA play for the first time in over a decade. Numerous student-athletes were named All-America selections and Players of the Year across the Patriot League.
She celebrated with the men's lacrosse team as Pat Spencer '19 was named the winner of the 2019 Tewaaraton Award and USILA Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award as the nation's top men's lacrosse player, the first such award for a Loyola student-athlete, and women's lacrosse's Chase Boyle who was a Tewaaraton Award Finalist in 2024.
Woodruff has also congratulated four Patriot League Male or Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year in women’s lacrosse standouts Kristen Yanchoris (2019) and Elli Kluegel (2021 and 2022) and men's lacrosse's Aidan Olmstead (2022). The Greyhounds have also continued to excel in the classroom during Woodruff’s tenure and all-time highs in grade-point averages and academic success. Loyola student-athletes finished the Spring 2024 semester with a grade-point average of more than 3.45 as better than 57 percent earned Dean's List honors.
Woodruff was the chair of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee in 2022 and completed a three-year term with the group that selects the championships field and determines policy for the national organization at the sport level. She is currently serving as the Patriot League Athletics Director’s liaison to the women’s lacrosse coaches committee, and just completed a term as the liaison to the men's basketball coaches committee.
In 2018, Loyola opened the Air Dome at Ridley Athletic Complex's Lugano Field, an indoor practice venue for Greyhounds lacrosse and soccer teams, as well as a training facility for other Loyola programs. The Greyhounds signed a multi-year agreement in 2018 with Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment under which VWSE will serve as the athletic department's exclusive multimedia rights partner and sales agent for its corporate sponsorship program. A state-of-the-art video board was added in summer 2019 and in fall 2020, a new Reitz Arena floor was unveiled after a complete renovation. In 2020, she also announced a long-term partnership with LifeBridge Health as the Official Healthcare provider of the Greyhounds.
The Greyhounds have unveiled several new internal and external initiatives during Woodruff's tenure on the Evergreen campus. During her tenure, she has increased student-athlete and coach support of other teams through the "One Hound Family" slogan, has helped increase the Greyhounds' involvement with University programs as she was the host of the Sister Cleophas Lecture with Olympic Champion Gabrielle Douglas and a 2024 event with three-time NCAA champion and two-time Olympian Kara Goucher.
During the summer of 2019 and fall of 2022, Loyola unveiled two branded charter buses which carry Greyhounds teams through the region to competitions. In September 2020, Woodruff was one of 30 NCAA Division I athletic directors to sign the inaugural Collegiate Coaching Diversity Pledge and she serves on the Patriot League Anti-Racism Commission.
She has hired six head coaches since her arrival: Josh Eventoff (men’s and women’s tennis), Tavaras Hardy (men's basketball), Josh Loeffler (men’s basketball), Joe Mallia (women's soccer), Megan Patrick (men's and women's rowing) and Danielle O’Banion (women’s basketball).
At Stony Brook, Woodruff was the highest-ranking member of the Director of Athletics’ Senior Executive Team with oversight of 115 department staff members and a budget of $30 million. She joined the school on Long Island in May 2004 as an associate athletic director and senior woman administrator before garnering a change in title to senior associate director of athletics after just one year.
Woodruff oversaw the Seawolves’ capital planning, financial operations, human resources, facilities and events, student-athlete development and compliance, among other areas of responsibility. She had direct supervision of Stony Brook’s men’s and women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse and volleyball programs, after having previously worked with several other teams.
The 1990 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania managed the capital facility and construction projects for the $21.1 million renovation of Island Federal Credit Union Arena, as well as planned the $5.7 million expansion of LaValle Stadium and $10 million indoor training facility. She has also managed renovations and construction of the university’s pool, Joe Nathan Baseball Field, the Goldstein Family Student-Athlete Development Center and a track and field complex.
She brings significant experience in fundraising initiatives, donor cultivation and alumni relations to Loyola, and she has also developed and implemented multiple strategic plans for the Stony Brook Athletic Department. Woodruff was key in enhancing the student-athlete experiences of the Seawolves and helped create and advance the school’s LifeSkills programming and gender equity initiatives.
The Philadelphia-area native was a member of the NCAA Division I Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Cabinet, serving a four-year term that ended in July 2016 and served as a member of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee until May 2022. She has been a featured speaker at Women Leaders in Sports (formerly known as NACWAA), and she was a part of the 2010-11 Sports Management Institute Class. In 2011, she was a recipient of the NACWAA Administrator of the Year for her work with the Seawolves.
Woodruff’s participation in college athletics dates to her days at Penn where she was a standout field hockey and lacrosse player for the Quakers. She was a five-time All-Ivy League selection, earning the honors three times in lacrosse and twice in field hockey. She was a National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-America honorable mention recipient following her senior season, and she also earned regional All-America honors from the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association.
She led Penn to the 1988 NCAA Semifinals and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team, to date the only Quaker player to be so honored. Woodruff was recognized for her excellence on the field as a member of Penn’s Athletic Hall of Fame Class X in May 2017.
After graduation, she joined Penn’s field hockey and lacrosse coaching staffs as an assistant coach. She worked with the Quakers’ lacrosse team from 1991-95 and the field hockey program from 1991-2000. In 1996, she joined the athletic administration at Penn, working in a variety of roles. Today, she still serves as a member of the Penn Field Hockey Alumnae Board having served as the chairperson for several years prior to her arrival at Loyola.
While at Penn, she also served as the regional administrative director for the United States Field Hockey Association Olympic Development Program from 1993-96. In that role, she managed and organized more than 650 athletes, 80 coaches, 15 athletic trainers and 15 site directors for participation in six months of training sessions following a curriculum developed by the National Coaching Staff.
She moved to nearby Villanova University in December 2000 where she worked as the Wildcats’ director of administrative services for athletics until May 2004 and her departure for Stony Brook. There, she oversaw the athletic department’s internship program and equipment operations and was a departmental liaison to several campus entities.
Woodruff earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Penn in 1990 and later received a Master of Science in Education with a concentration in higher education administration from the Ivy League school in 2000. She was a standout student-athlete at Marple Newtown High School in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where she was inducted to the hall of fame in 2007 and again in 2022.
Woodruff has been active in the Baltimore community since her arrival to Loyola, and currently serves on the boards of Rebuilding Together Baltimore and Business Volunteers Maryland. She also served on the academic committee at St. Ignatius Loyola Academy for several years.
The former Donna Mulhern is married to Mark F. Woodruff.
