Bio

Entering her 21^st year as the Director of Athletics, Sue Lauder has overseen the growth of Fitchburg State athletics for the past two decades.  Lauder has enhanced the intercollegiate athletics program and increased opportunities at Fitchburg State University by establishing two new women’s varsity programs and supporting the growth of all teams.  She was a catalyst behind the improvement of various athletic and recreation facilities and has secured two NCAA grants to help fund Fitchburg State athletics initiatives and staff positions. Throughout her tenure she has overseen numerous facility upgrades, including the renovation of the Elliot Field Complex, the building of the Recreation Center and the $3.1 million renovation to the Wallace Civic Center at Fitchburg State University.

In addition to her duties on campus, Lauder served as the Commissioner of the 16-member, New England Football Conference, the largest in NCAA Division III, from 2005 to 2012. The only female to head a collegiate football-only league, she was awarded the Asa S. Bushnell Outstanding Commissioner Award in 2009 from the All-American Football Foundation.

Lauder is a 1975 graduate of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland and was inducted into the Cortland Hall of Fame in 2010.  She has over 38 years of Athletics and Recreation experience, including nine years as the Assistant Director of Athletics, Senior Women’s Administrator and Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Assumption College. She also served as the Director of Women’s Athletics, Women’s Basketball Coach and Women’s Tennis Coach at Hartwick College before serving as the Director of Intramurals and Athletics at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

While at Fitchburg, Lauder served as vice president and president of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC). On a national scale, she served on the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Committee, Nominating Committee, Championships Committee, Strategic Planning and Finance Committee and the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel. She was a participant in the NCAA Future of Division III Focus Group and a member of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Legislative Committee.  She has also served on numerous ECAC championship tournament selection committees.

As a junior in College, Lauder studied abroad at the Deutsche sporthochschule in Koln, West Germany and subsequently earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from SUNY-Cortland. After teaching at Romulus High School (NY) for two years, Lauder continued her education at Syracuse University, earning her Master of Science degree in Physical Education in 1978.

She resides in Worcester, Massachusetts.