St. Joseph’s athletic director Jill Bodensteiner takes a leave of absence

On Sept. 29, St. Joseph’s student-athletes received an email from the athletic department announcing athletic director Jill Bodensteiner would be taking an indefinite leave of absence to be with her ailing mother in Indiana. (This reporter is a member of the St. Joe’s men’s rowing team.)

Bodensteiner said she would return and encouraged St. Joe’s athletes to keep making her proud.

Bodensteiner was named athletic director on Hawk Hill in 2018 and has seen several teams thrive while serving in the position. The field hockey team won three Atlantic 10 championships, and the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams made their first NCAA Tournament appearances in 2022.

Perhaps the most polarizing decision by the university during Bodensteiner’s tenure has been the 2019 firing of former men’s basketball head coach Phil Martelli, ending his 24-year-career on Hawk Hill. It was a move Bodensteiner would later refer to as “unequivocally the hardest decision I’ve made in my life.”

Bodensteiner pushed for the creation of the athletic department’s first diversity, equity, and inclusion group and action plan.

Bodensteiner also promoted well-being and mental health for St. Joe’s athletes by bringing on sports psychologists and a partnership with the Calm app.

Before her arrival at St. Joe’s, Bodensteiner served as a senior associate athletic director at Notre Dame.

While in South Bend, Bodensteiner served on the NCAA’s committee on women’s athletics, which was responsible for providing equal opportunities for women in collegiate athletics.

The university has yet to name an interim athletic director.

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