Gracie Gallagher joined Notre Dame Athletics in July of 2024 and currently serves as the Senior Director of Strategy. She is also a Sport Administrator for Rowing. In this role, Gracie leads long-term, sustainable strategy and planning for the department working with areas including finance, the student-athlete experience, government affairs, and strategic planning. Gracie works closely with the Athletics leadership team, coaches and other leaders across campus on strategic priorities and helps further develop important connections

to move the department’s priorities forward in a collaborative manner. During this unprecedented time of change in college athletics, Gracie serves as a critical leader for the department as it determines the strategy and pathway forward while ensuring Notre Dame delivers on its promise of a distinctive and differentiated student-athlete experience.

Gracie graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in economics and supplemental major in applied computational mathematics and statistics. Gracie’s involvement with Notre Dame Athletics began when she was a student — she was student athletic trainer, Monogram winner, and the Dr. Willard Yergler Award winner in 2016. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree, Gracie served in the Notre Dame Finance Division as a Treasury Analyst before being promoted to Advisor to the Vice President for Finance. Gracie next served as Project Specialist for both current and former Executive Vice Presidents, Shannon Cullinan and John Affleck-Graves, from 2018-2022 where she worked on a variety of initiatives including the University’s Covid-19 efforts during the 2020-21 school year and specifically led the university’s vaccination strategy and on-campus clinic. Prior to the pandemic, she was promoted to Director of Strategic Initiatives for University Enterprises & Events where she negotiated a new Bookstore partnership, served on the NIL Campus Committee as it was being launched, led the division’s strategic partnerships, and played a critical role in creating and executing major events for the university including the 50th Celebration of Co-Education and Commencement 2020. In the summer of 2022, Gracie left Notre Dame to pursue her Masters in Business Administration at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated with honors in May of 2024. At Wharton, Gracie was a William P. Lauder Leadership Fellow, Communications Fellow, Co-President of the Wharton Sports Business Club, and Co-Chair of the Deans’ MBA Advisory Council. Gracie spent the summer between her first and second year of business school as a strategy intern at DICK’S Sporting Goods in Pittsburgh.

As a South Bend native, Gracie is deeply integrated in the local community. She is on the board of Youth Services Bureau, Leadership South Bend Mishawaka and serves on an athletics advisory committee for the Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Indiana Corridor. She has previously held board positions at the YWCA of North Central Indiana. In her free time, Gracie enjoys coaching high school girls basketball, travelling to new destinations, trying new restaurants, and going for walks along the St. Joe River.