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KAREN MORRISON
Associate Athletic Director/
Compliance, Financial Aid & SWA
Karen Morrison is in her fifth year as
associate athletic director at the University
of Colorado, as she was promoted to the
position on August 9, 2000. She was the
assistant athletic director for compliance
for two years prior to her promotion, and is
in her 14th year overall associated with the
CU athletic program. In 1998, she was also
named CU’s Senior Woman Administrator.
Morrison, 43, oversees several CU sport
programs – women’s basketball, volleyball,
men’s and women’s skiing, men’s and
women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis. She also directs the compliance
and financial aid programs. Other aspects of her role include
Title IX compliance, NCAA Certification and service on several department
and conference committees. She is also a member of the senior
management team for the department.
Morrison is on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Committee,
being placed on the 10-member working board starting the 2000-01 season
and is serving a five-year term. She is in her second year as the
liaison from the Women’s Basketball Committee to the NCAA’s Women’s
Basketball Issues Committee. She also served as the Big 12 representative
on the NCAA Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet, spending
four years on the NCAA Interpretations subcommittee of the Cabinet.
Morrison was appointed to the position in March 1997, after working
as the assistant compliance coordinator since April 1996. Prior to that,
she was an assistant coach for six seasons for Ceal Barry and the CU
women’s basketball team. She was on the staff of five Big Eight champion
teams (regular or postseason), and two Elite Eight squads. She
played a major role in the Buffs securing four top 20 recruiting classes
and handled scheduling chores.
She also was an instructor in kinesiology for two years on the CU
campus (1989-91), and worked for two years as an attorney with the
Fort Collins law firm of Frey, Lach & Michaels, P.C.
Born January 13, 1961, and spending most of her youth in Tulsa,
Okla., she graduated from the University of Oklahoma with honors,
earning a B.A. degree in management in 1983. She earned her Juris
Doctorate in 1987 from the University of Notre Dame School of Law. At
Oklahoma, she was on academic and athletic scholarship and was a
member of the women’s basketball team. She has two boys (4) and Max
(born this April).
ANDREW PLENN
Associate Athletic
Director/Development
Andrew Plenn is wrapping up his first
year on the Colorado staff, as he was
named associate athletic director for development
on November 25, 2003. He is
responsible for all aspects of athletic fund
raising, including major gifts, endowments,
capital projects and the annual fund.
Plenn, 37, came to CU from his alma
mater, the University of Maryland, where
he was director of advancement projects
for two years (1997-98) and the executive
director of the Terrapin Club for five (1998-
2003) before being promoted to assistant
athletic director for the annual fund in June 2003.
At Maryland, Plenn was responsible for the day-to-day operations of
the annual scholarship fundraising program, special events, donor
stewardship and benefit administration for the 7,800-member organization.
He was a lead member of the development staff that exceeded its
goal and raised more than $20 million in private gifts towards the construction
of Maryland’s state-of-the-art Comcast Center. His event
experience in coordinating donor related activities includes the 2002
FedEx Orange Bowl, 2002 Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, 2002 Kickoff Classic
and the 2001 and 2002 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Fours. Membership
in the Terrapin Club increased by 100 percent and scholarship contri-
437
butions increased over that percentage under his leadership. Prior to
serving as the executive director, he worked as the department’s director
of advancement projects from 1997-98.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in
public relations from Maryland in 1990. Before joining the athletic
department on Maryland’s College Park campus in 1997, he worked in
the development offices at University of Maryland-Baltimore County
(1991-92), Bishop McNamara High School (1992-96) and Villanova
University (1996-97).
He was born March 29, 1968 in Southampton, N.Y. His father was in
the Coast Guard, and his family lived in Guam; Juneau and Kodiak,
Alaska; Norfolk, Va.; Cape Cod; and Cape May, N.J. He graduated from
Lower Cape May Regional High School in 1986. He is married (Krista)
and the couple has two daughters, Amy (6) and Alexandra (4).
RUPH GEBRE-MARIAM
Assistant Athletic
Director/Ticketing
Ruph Gebre-Mariam is his first year as
CU’s assistant athletic director for ticketing,
as he was named to the position on
May 28, 2004. It’s his second “tour of duty”
with athletics, as he first worked with the
department as an undergraduate and then
full-time upon his graduation. He is just the
ninth ticket manager in CU’s athletic history.
Gebre-Mariam, 36, graduated with a
degree in marketing and international business
from the University of Colorado in
1990. As a student, he worked in the athletic
ticket office, and upon his graduation, was hired full-time by the
department as its travel coordinator. He also had some supervisory
duties in purchasing. He earned his master’s degree in political science
from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2002.
He left athletics in January 1998 for CIRES (Cooperative Institute for
Research in Environmental Sciences), as he became an account manager
in the finance unit and then as a liaison in human resources and
payroll.
He was born July 28, 1967 in Madison, Wis., and graduated from
Notre Dame International High School in Rome, Italy, where he lettered
in soccer (midfielder). His family moved to Ethiopia when he was an
infant, where he lived for 10 years before moving to West Africa
(Gambia) when he was 11 and then to Italy when he was 14. He is fluent
in four languages: English, Italian, French and Amharic. He is single.
JOHN KRUEGER
Assistant Athletic
Director/Facilities
John Krueger is in his 19th year as a
member of the athletic department, his
sixth year as the assistant athletic director
for facilities as he was promoted on July 1,
1999. In his position, he also continues to
oversee CU’s athletic facilities and
grounds, the position he first was hired fulltime
for on August 1, 1986.
Krueger, 40, is responsible for all maintenance
and scheduling for all facilities and
grounds, as well as set-up procedures for
athletic and special events. He also is the
liaison for events such as the Bolder Boulder, the Fourth of July
Fireworks and numerous concerts and graduations. As a student at CU,
he worked four years under the facilities director, first working for Mark
Simpson as a freshman in 1982.
He was born October 11, 1963 in Oak Park, Ill. He graduated from
Lyons Township High School (LaGrange, Ill.) in 1981, and graduated
from CU in 1986 with a B.S. degree in economics. A caddy for six years,
he attended CU on a prestigious Evans Scholarship. In March 2004, he
was named Chapter Advisor for the same Eisenhower-Evans Scholar
House that he lived in while attending CU. In his new role he is the chapter’s
liaison to the University and Western Golf Association and