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Judy Willson is in her third year in the Athletics Media Relations Department at UNM, joining the staff in August of 2007. She is the primary contact for volleyball and skiing, and the secondary contact for men's basketball with oversight of baseball, men's tennis and swimming and diving. Over the previous two season, she has been the primary contact for baseball and served as the host media coordinator for the 2009 NCAA Women's Basketball First and Second Rounds in Albuquerque.
Willson spent the previous two and a half years as the Director of Athletic Media Relations at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and four and a half years as the Assistant Commissioner for Media Relations at the Sun Belt Conference, located in New Orleans. During those seven years, Willson was instrumental in the start of Division I-A football in the Sun Belt Conference and the development of the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. While at the Sun Belt office, Willson received the All-American Football Foundation Scoop Hudgins Outstanding Sports Information Director Award. She also served as the host media coordinator for the 2003 NCAA Final Four and 2002 NCAA Volleyball National Tournament. Over the past 20 years, Willson has assisted at numerous conference, BCS, and NCAA championship events.
Before moving to Louisiana in July 2000, Willson was a member of the athletics media relations staff at the University of Denver for two years as the school made the transition from Division II to Division I and became a member of the Sun Belt Conference.
Willson began her athletics media relations career in the Division II ranks, beginning with graduate assistantships at Northwest Missouri State University and Pittsburg State University. In 1991, Willson became the first full-time Director of Sports Information for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. Willson became familiar with the state of New Mexico in 1994, when she became the first full-time Sports Information Director at Eastern New Mexico University. During her four years in Portales, she also worked part-time, in 1995-96, as the Director of Media Relations for the Lone Star Conference.
The Cambridge, Mass., native recently completed a five-year term on the CoSIDA Board of Directors as an At-Large representative (2002-07) and served as the co-chair of the CoSIDA Executive Director Search Committee in 2007. Willson has been active in the national organization, serving on committees and task forces, as a panel and table topic presenter, and as parliamentarian since 1995. She is also a member of Female Athletics Media Relations Executives (FAME), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), and National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA). Willson was named to the NCBWA Board of Directors in 2008.
Willson was presented the 2006 Bob Kenworthy Good Person Award by CoSIDA for her efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The daughter of Don and Sarah Willson, she began her career as a student assistant at her alma mater, Geneva College (1988) in Beaver Falls, Pa. She also earned a master's degree in Sports Administration from Eastern New Mexico University in 1997.
