Judy Van Horn

Judy Van Horn, Deputy Athletics Director for Internal Operations and Risk Management/Deputy Title IX Coordinator, has been an integral part of the athletics department senior staff since January 2011. She is primary sport administrator for volleyball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis. Van Horn also oversees Gamecock Sports Science which includes sports medicine, mental health, sports performance, sports science along with equipment and apparel. She is involved in troubleshooting with department-wide issues, helps lead the department’s response to COVID, monitors compliance with Title IX and gender equity and provides oversight for human resources.

Van Horn participates on various University committees such as the Sexual Assault Policy Group, Hazing Prevention and Education Committee, Healthcare Delivery Systems Committee and the University’s Emergency Management Committee. Van Horn also chaired Executive Crisis Communication Committees which designed and coordinated exercises involving a fictitious sexual misconduct incident. Participants included the president, provost and other senior University and Athletics Department leaders and head coaches. A former two-year chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis and Women’s Tennis Committee, Van Horn has extensive national committee service including the Executive Committee of the NCAA Committee on Institutional Performance where she chaired the Inclusion Subcommittee and lead efforts to develop new metrics to assist NCAA Division I institutions in assessing their athletics programs together with best practices. In 2015 she served on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Beach Volleyball Selection Committee. A regular presenter and panelist, Van Horn currently serves on Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Board of Directors and on the ITA/United States Tennis Association (USTA) Task Force.

Van Horn came to South Carolina after a nine-year stint at the University of Michigan. As Associate Director of Athletics/SWA, Van Horn oversaw the University’s athletics compliance program and helped design and lead an Executive Crisis Communication Exercise involving a fictitious incident of sexual misconduct. She served a primary role addressing a major infractions cases involving the football program as well as the high profile “Fab Five” men’s basketball case. She also served on the steering committee for the President’s Ethics in Public Life Initiative. Van Horn worked on various Big Ten committees including Legislative Review, Drug Testing Review, and Compliance and Reinstatement.

Prior to her tenure at Michigan, Van Horn spent four years in the Department of Athletics at Michigan State University where she rose to Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance with oversight for NCAA compliance efforts and taught a course, “Ethics in Sport.” Van Horn began her athletics administration career at her alma mater, Central Michigan University, working there 8 years.

Van Horn served a two-year term as President of the National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) during which she led a major restructuring of the organization. NAAC honored her with the 2010 Frank Kara Leadership Award, the premier award bestowed on a member of the compliance profession, and in 2005 the Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2009 she became the inaugural recipient of the Women in Sport Leadership’s Claire Van Ummersen Leadership Award.

Van Horn holds a master’s degree in sport administration and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Central Michigan University. She and her husband, Dave, have three adult children and six grandchildren.