Kris Livingston (2025) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Kris Livingston

Induction:
2025

The longest-tenured female administrator in CU athletic department history (not including coaches or secretaries/administrative assistants), Kris Livingston joined the University of Colorado in July 1997 as the first-ever director of operations for the women’s basketball program, a position she held for eight seasons under head coach Ceal Barry until she retired from coaching in 2005 … She then was named the assistant director of the Herbst Academic Center and took over as its director in 2007 … She oversaw all of CU’s academic support services for anywhere from 350 to 380 student-athletes annually … Under her direction, CU’s athletes improved almost annually in semester and cumulative grade point averages, setting records almost annually up until the time she retired … She had several promotions (to senior associate athletic director in 2018, associate athletic director in 2014 and assistant athletic director in 2010), until finally serving as the executive senior associate athletic director from 2021 until her recent retirement (June 2025) … As a member of the executive team under athletic director Rick George, she managed CU's 11 sport supervisors (and at one time was the supervisor herself for women’s basketball, lacrosse, skiing and soccer) … She also had previously supervised the department’s diversity and inclusion programs and leadership and career programs … She joined the CU staff after working as a senior consultant for the Littleton, Colo.-based USA Group Noel-Levitz, an educational consulting firm that colleges hired to help recruit and retain students … Prior to that, she spent eight years at Iowa State University as an assistant women's basketball coach (1984-89), admissions counselor (1989-91) and telecounseling coordinator (1991-92) … She earned her bachelor's degree in Sociology from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in May 1983, where she was a four-year letterwinner on Miami's women's basketball team and earned first-team All-Mid-American Conference and first-team Academic All-MAC honors … In August 1997, she was inducted into Miami's Hall of Fame, only the second women's basketball player to be so honored … She earned her Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Science with an emphasis in Sport Administration from the University of Northern Colorado in August 2009 … A native of Toledo, Ohio, she graduated from Lake High School in Millbury, Ohio, in 1979, where she was a three-sport athlete, earning 11 letters and was an inaugural member of her high school Hall of Fame in 1983 … In 2013, she was awarded the “Honorary C” for her longtime dedication to the department, and in particular, the student-athlete … She is married to Dr. Kelly Causey … She was born in Toledo.