Diana Cutaia

Diana Cutaia brought her life-long passion for athletics to Wheelock College as the director of athletics beginning with the 2005-06 school year, and under her leadership the department has seen tremendous success. Since her arrival, Wheelock has seen a 200 percent increase in student-athlete participation, and has grown the number of varsity programs from five to 11 in just five years, including adding men's sports for the first time in school history. During Cutaia's tenure, Wildcat student-athletes have drawn 39 all-conference and 103 academic all-conference accolades, while the programs have earned 17 league sportsmanship awards. Cutaia has also secured a multi-year equipment partnership with New Balance, Inc., while the department and its student-athletes staged fundraisers for earthquake-ravaged Haiti in 2010 and 2011. Thanks to its Walk 4 Haiti, Wheelock was one of 14 Division III institutions to draw a Jostens Community Service Award from the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators (NADIIIAA) for the 2009-10 school year. In March 2011, Cutaia provided the keynote speech at the NCAA Division III Regional Career in Sports Forum. Late in 2010, she was one of five Boston-area women lauded for her community service efforts, earning the Activating Confidence Award in the category of advocacy due to her work in advocacy for sport at all levels and for all genders, both locally and on the national level. During her time at Wheelock, she has required her student-athletes undertake community service projects that provide for the betterment of the college, local and world communities. Cutaia has been involved in athletics in a number of capacities for more than 20 years. Prior to arriving at Wheelock, she served as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Governor's Committee on Physical Fitness and Sport. Cutaia has held positions in marketing and human resources and began her own company, Advance Sports Educational and Consulting Services, in 1999. Advance Sports offered a multitude of services including conducting motivational and educational presentations, produced an instructional basketball CD for youth, and developed S.O.A.R. camps, which creatively introduced sports to young girls. Cutaia has also served as the Boston Public Policy consultant for the Women's Sports Foundation and is the co-founder of the Boston Women's Athletic Administrators Network. Cutaia's coaching experience includes serving as head women's basketball coach at Curry College, and as assistant women's basketball coach at Mount Holyoke College. Cutaia began her collegiate coaching career after spending three years on the high school level as the head women's basketball coach at Norwalk Community College, where she led the women's basketball program to national prominence in only four years. Her Panthers finished three seasons ranked No. 1 in the New England region and among the top eight in the nation. In 2009, Cutaia took on an additional role at Wheelock as the director of Sport-Based Initiatives, a new institutional focus, which included the creation of the sport-based youth development academic program and the promotion of professional development programs for youth coaches, administrators and educators. Cutaia continues her work on the local and state level in advocating for increased physical education and activity in schools. Cutaia also teaches courses in the academic sport-based youth development program.