INDIANAPOLIS — Manhattan Athletics Director Irma Garcia has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, becoming the seventh woman to serve with this group. Her five-year term begins immediately and runs through Aug. 31, 2029.
Garcia has been in her current role for a year. She spent the prior 35 years at St. Francis Brooklyn, first as the women’s basketball coach from 1988-99, then as the associate athletics director from 1999-2007 and then as the athletics director from 2007-23. St. Francis Brooklyn is also where Garcia earned her undergraduate degree in 1980 while playing basketball for four years at the school. Upon graduating, she served as a physical education instructor and girls basketball coach at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School on Staten Island for eight years. She later earned a master’s from Brooklyn College.
Garcia was the Northeast Conference women’s basketball Coach of the Year in 1998, won the FCS Administrator of the Year in 2014-15 from the group now called Women Leaders in Sports, and a year later received Division I-AAA Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year honors. The Brooklyn native has also served on the Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and is active with Women Leaders in Sports. In addition, she has had leadership roles with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Public Schools Athletic League of New York City.
“I am thrilled to be selected as the MAAC representative on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee,” Garcia said. “This is without question an opportunity to elevate Manhattan College, our conference and Division I men’s basketball. I’m excited to get started working alongside my fellow committee members. The best is yet to come!”
Garcia is one of five new members of the committee, joining Mark Jackson of Villanova, Stu Jackson of the West Coast Conference, Brian Thornton of the Western Athletic Conference and Chad Weiberg of Oklahoma State. Bubba Cunningham of North Carolina will chair the committee for the 2024-25 season. Other returning members include Greg Byrne of Alabama, Mark Coyle of Minnesota, Keith Gill of the Sun Belt Conference, Arthur Johnson of Temple, Martin Newton of Samford and Tom Wistrcill of the Big Sky Conference.