ABOUT

Derek Cowherd

Derek Cowherd started his career at his alma mater, the University of Louisville. First as a student-athlete, then Graduate Assistant, Academic Counselor, and ultimately as the Assistant Director for Academics in Athletics.

Cowherd rejoined the University of Louisville in fall 2021 as the Associate Athletics Director and will lead its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. As a member of the senior leadership team, Cowherd will be tasked with elevating and overseeing department-wide strategic initiatives to foster the improvement of DEI across all constituencies, including student-athletes, staff, and the broader university community. He will develop, facilitate, and implement initiatives and programming that will align with the department's goals and core beliefs, as well as the University's Cardinal Principles and the University’s Office of Diversity and Equity strategic plan. Cowherd will provide guidance and leadership to all organizational levels to resolve significant and complex issues.

Prior to rejoining his alma mater, Cowherd served as Ohio State University’s Executive Director of Student-Athlete Support Services Offices & Senior Associate Athletics Director from 2018 - 2021. In just 2.5 years, OSU student-athletes achieved record-high academic progress rates with an overall score of 990 for all thirty-six sports combined. In addition, student-athletes achieved program record GPAs of over 3.5 as well as a record-high single year graduation success rate of 92 percent. OSU also earned the NCAA Academic Based Revenue Distribution distinction for the second time in consecutive years since the program’s creation in 2016 under Cowherd’s leadership.

Before joining the Buckeyes, Cowherd had a successful stint at the University of Mississippi where he served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for student-athlete development. During his six years in Oxford, Cowherd helped to develop a variety of programs related to the academic success of student-athletes, pushing the graduation success rate to 85 percent – the highest in school history, and four consecutive 3.00 overall GPAs for the department – the first in school history. He also served as a member and/or co-chair of various teams and committees: Athletics Senior Staff, 9A/PSA Committee, APR/GSR Committee, Council of Academic Administrators, Provost’s Academic Affairs Committee, Chancellor’s Committee on Accessibility, Council on Community Engagement, UM Diversity Leadership Council, Athletics and Intercollegiate Compliance Committee, Campus Internationalization Committee, Athletics Diversity Committee, and Student-Athlete Wellness Committee.

Before heading to Mississippi, Cowherd was the Director of Academic Affairs at LSU, a position he took over in 2011 after joining LSU’s Academic Center for Student-Athletes in 2007. It was in that position that he was able to assist the LSU Tigers in winning football, baseball, and track and field national championships in his first two years. His primary role at LSU was to be the academic oversight of the LSU Tiger football team while supervising seven full-time advisors and other staff spread out amongst the other sports.

He is a native of Greensburg, Kentucky. He started his pursuit of a doctorate in Higher Education Administration while at the University of Louisville and LSU and plans to complete his Ph.D. at the University.