The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) Board of the Directors and Secretary of Education Susan Bunting are pleased to announce Donna Polk has been selected as DIAA’s new executive director. Polk becomes the 9th executive director since the organization’s inception in 1945. She will be the organization’s first female director and first African American director.
Polk has served as DIAA’s coordinator of interscholastic athletics since November 2018. She will lead all strategic planning for the association, working closely with the DIAA Board of Directors, member schools and DIAA staff to support the advancement of student-athletes and managing 20 DIAA championships.
“I look forward to contributing to the association’s continued success focusing on the student-athlete experience, being a resource to member schools and being a community partnership,” Polk said.
Prior to joining DIAA, she worked a short stint at Indian River High School, serving as student advisor and head girls varsity basketball coach. She brings 14 years of experience at the collegiate level, working as associate athletic director/senior woman administrator at Bowie State University and compliance coordinator/sports information director/office manager at Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University. Polk has experience in administration, game day management, facilities and operations, compliance and governance, human resources, internal operations and sport supervision.
She served on several campus committees while at Bowie State University. At the conference level, she served on basketball, softball, women’s volleyball and bowling sport committees. She also was president of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Senior Woman Administrators and served nationally on the NCAA softball ranking committee as well as the women’s basketball national and regional ranking committees.
During her time at Bowie State University, she served as head women’s basketball coach for three seasons, compiling a 55-29 record. As head coach her team reached the conference championship twice and was ranked regionally during the 2009 and 2010 seasons. She also has experience as head and assistant women’s basketball coach at Columbia Union College and head varsity and junior varsity girls basketball coach and assistant junior varsity softball coach at Bowie High School.
Polk was a student-athlete at Columbia Union College, where she was a member of the women’s basketball and softball teams. She is a member of the 1,000-point women’s basketball club.
Polk earned a Bachelor of Science degree in counseling psychology from Columbia Union College and a Master of Arts degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix.
Polk, a Delaware native, graduated from Sussex Central High School in the Indian River School District, where she was a three-sport athlete playing field hockey, basketball and softball.
She will begin in the new role on February 2
