Sandy Barbour

Anne Saunders "Sandy" Barbour (born December 2, 1959) is an American athletic administrator who served as the athletic director at the Pennsylvania State University from 2014 to 2022, the University of California, Berkeley from 2004 to 2014, and Tulane University from 1996 to 1999.^[1]

Sandy Barbour

Biographical details
Born	(1959-12-02) December 2, 1959 (age 65) Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater	Wake Forest University (B.S.) University of Massachusetts Amherst (M.S.) Northwestern University (M.B.A.)
Playing career
Field hockey
1977–1980	Wake Forest
Basketball
1977–1978; 1979–1980	Wake Forest
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Field hockey
1981	UMass (asst.)
1982–1984	Northwestern (asst.)
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1982–1984	Northwestern (dir. recruiting services)
1984–1989	Northwestern (asst. AD)
1991–1996	Tulane (assoc. AD)
1996–1999	Tulane
2000–2002	Notre Dame (assoc. AD)
2002–2004	Notre Dame (deputy AD)
2004–2014	California
2014–2022	Penn State
2025–Present	Utah State

Utah State

On July 18, 2025, Utah State University named Barbour the interim athletic director while it conducts a national search for its next athletics director.^[2]

Penn State

Barbour directed the Penn State athletic programs, which have approximately 800 students in 31 sports (16 men’s/15 women’s) and an Intercollegiate Athletics staff of more than 300.^{[citation needed]}

In 2020, Barbour was among the honorees on Sports Illustrated’s "The Unrelenting" list of powerful, influential and outstanding women in sports.^[3]

In 2018, she was named one of five finalists for Sports Business Journal’s prestigious Athletic Director of the Year.^[4]

Barbour is a member of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, serving as Chair beginning in July 2021 for a term to end June 2023^[5] and represents the Big Ten Conference on the NCAA Division I Council.^[6] In 2017, she was selected as one of the inaugural members of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s (USOC) Collegiate Sports Sustainability Think Tank. The Think Tank is charged with bridging the gap between high-contributing collegiate stakeholders and the Olympic Movement.

In March 2022, Barbour announced she would retire from Penn State in Summer 2022.^[7]

Cal and Tulane

Barbour was the director of athletics at Cal from 2004-14.

Barbour served as athletic director at Tulane University from 1996 until resigning in 1999, having joined the staff as an associate athletic director in 1991.^[8]