Through 2024-25, Lori Mazza has served as a Division III director of athletics for 32 years including the last nine of them at Western Connecticut State University (WestConn) where she was hired in the fall of 2016. Before her appointment at WestConn , Mazza served most of her time in a similar capacity for 17 years as director of athletics at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
At WestConn, Mazza inherited a successful athletic program that featured 14 intercollegiate programs and has since increased participation to what will be 23 offerings (12 for women, 11 for men) by the 2026-27 academic year. WestConn added women's golf and men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field in 2024-25, and adds men's ice hockey in 2025-26 and women's ice hockey a year later. In the Little East Conference (LEC), Mazza currently serves as the conference’s treasurer and the liaison for the sports of men’s and women’s soccer.
Mazza has served on various regional and national committees throughout her career. Her most recent national committee work was as a member of the NCAA Management Council from 2018 to 2022, where she worked with the financial committee and the sub-legislative relief committee and chaired the convention committee for her last three years. Her previous NCAA involvement included time as a member of the Division III Women's Volleyball Committee (Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Region), the Division III Women's Softball Committee (National Chair), the Division III Women's Basketball Regional Advisory Committee for the Great Lakes Region, among others. Mazza has served on the board of National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators (NADIIIAA) and National Association of Collegiate Woman Athletic Administrators (NACWAA, now Women’s Leaders). She is also an active member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD).
Mazza feels that her responsibilities to student-athletes are “to ensure that each one knows that they are here, first and foremost, for their education. If we then can provide an opportunity for each student-athlete to compete on a national scale in a sport they love, then we as a staff, are doing something special. If the student-athlete takes both the academic and athletic experience they get here at WestConn with them as they graduate, I hope it then becomes a solid foundation for their lives as they enter the real world.”
During her tenure at Pitt-Bradford, Mazza was instrumental in the school's evolution from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to the NCAA (Div. III), ensuring all programs complied with NCAA rules and regulations before and after the transition. Additionally, she presided over the formation of multiple new intercollegiate programs, including baseball, men's and women's swimming, bowling and men's and women's tennis. Mazza established a strong track record of fundraising and alumni engagement while at Pitt-Bradford, spearheading efforts to create an endowment for the Panthers' athletic department. Under her direction, the endowment campaign raised double its stated goal. Mazza also worked to strengthen alumni and community relations through the creation of the Panther Athletic Club and the Pitt-Bradford Hall of Fame.
Before her time at Pitt-Bradford, Mazza gained valuable insight into collegiate athletics at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. She joined Wesleyan in a coaching capacity and was soon promoted to athletic director. She held that title for the remainder of her time at Wesleyan, while also serving as the head coach of the women's basketball team from 1993 to 1998 and as an assistant coach for the volleyball and softball programs.
Mazza holds a bachelor's degree in health science from Lock Haven University and a master's degree in education with a concentration in sports Management from East Stroudsburg University.
