Joe Karlgaard (born August 2, 1974) is an American college athletics administrator who is currently the athletics director at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

. Prior to Rice, Karlgaard served as the senior associate athletics director for development at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and as athletics director at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

Early life and education

Born in

Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck () is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the state's second-most populous city, after Fargo. The city's population was 73,622 in the 2020 census, while its metropolitan popula ...

, Karlgaard attended

, earning a bachelor's degree in history in 1996. He also ran track and field for the Cardinal, where he lettered all four years. He later received a master's degree and Ph.D. in educational policy and administration from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Sports administration career

Karlgaard began his career as the administrative assistant for the Stanford track and field program and then coached cross country and track at the

. In 2004, he joined his former coach

Vin Lananna Vin or VIN may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Vîn TV, a Kurdish language satellite television channel founded in 2007 * ''Vos Iz Neias?'', an American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a stati ...

as an assistant athletics director at

. In 2005, he was named athletics director at Oberlin following the departure of Lananna to coach track and field at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. In 2011, he returned to Stanford as the senior associate athletics director for development. He was named director of athletics at

on September 9, 2013. Karlgaard is a past chair of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee, which selects teams to compete in the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

. He also served on the LEAD1 Association's Working Group on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2020.

Personal life

Karlgaard and his wife Jill have three sons. His father, Dick, was a former high school athletics director who won the National High School Athletic Coaches Association national athletic director of the year award in 1991. His brother,

Rich Karlgaard Rich Karlgaard is an American journalist, bestselling author, award-winning entrepreneur, and speaker. He was named publisher of ''Forbes'' magazine in 1998 and has written three books, ''Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Thei ...

, is the publisher of Forbes Magazine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karlgaard, Joe 1974 births Living people Rice Owls athletic directors Stanford University alumni University of Minnesota alumni People from Bismarck, North Dakota