Before she joined the field hockey team, before she designed the Title IX mural in Mitchell Center, before she even committed to Denison, Kate Hinshaw ’24 was a prospective student who desperately needed a ride to the airport.
It was fall of 2019, and Hinshaw was making her second campus visit to meet members of the field hockey team and watch them play. Everything went swimmingly until she tried summoning an Uber at halftime of the Sunday morning game.
Hinshaw grew increasingly anxious as she realized she might miss her flight home. Fortunately, a player’s parent introduced her to athletic director Nan Carney-DeBord ’80, who offered a surprising solution.
“I’ll just drive you myself,” said the administrator who oversees 26 varsity sports, serves as an associate vice president, and a professor of health, exercise, and sport studies (HESS).
As Carney-DeBord prepares to retire from Denison after 14 years, stories of her generosity, energy, and ingenuity abound. She changed cultures and put student-athletes first, making the Big Red the envy of the North Coast Athletic Conference.
“Our department has shown exponential growth with Nan at the helm,” swimming and diving coach Gregg Parini said. “It parallels and reflects the growth of the university under President Adam Weinberg. Managing growth isn’t easy, and she’s done a great job of it.”
And often with memorable personal touches — like the time she drove a stranger to the airport.
“The whole ride, Nan asked me about myself and my interests and made a really good case as to why the liberal arts and Division III athletic experience is so incredible,” Hinshaw recalled. “It was this random act of kindness that spoke to her character, selflessness, and her dedication to Denison.”
Two of a kind
The first time Weinberg accompanied Carney-DeBord to an NCAA Convention, it felt as if they were walking through Mitchell Center corridors.
On the national stage, the president heard stories about Carney-DeBord just like those shared by Big Red coaches and athletes. There was admiration for the way she impacted lives as a legendary women’s basketball coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and respect for the work she was doing at Denison.
Carney-DeBord, who played field hockey and basketball at Denison, returned to her alma mater in 2011. Weinberg, a college hockey player, arrived two years later. Together they have guided Denison through an era of athletic achievement and expansion.
Eight of the Big Red’s 20 NCAC all-sports trophies have been won on Carney-DeBord’s watch. The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have combined to capture six NCAA titles in that span, and during the 2023-24 school year, the Big Red qualified 10 teams for NCAA tournaments.
Weinberg cites three Carney-DeBord qualities that enabled the Big Red to thrive: She made good coaching hires, built a strong culture within the athletic department, and cared about the student experience. “We do athletics the way it was meant to be done at the collegiate level,” Weinberg said. “This is Nan’s legacy.”
‘You’ve got this’
Maureen Hirt has coached the women’s basketball team for three seasons.
In 2023, women’s basketball coach Maureen Hirt sat in her office, processing devastating news from her doctors. An X-ray had revealed a softball-sized mass in her chest.
After calling her partner and mother, Hirt broke the news to the woman who had hired her.
“I wouldn’t have been able to get through this without Nan,” said Hirt, diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare cancer that affects the lymphatic system. “She kept saying, ‘You’ve got this,’ and, ‘we’ll do whatever’s necessary to support you.’”
Carney-DeBord was among the reasons Hirt accepted the Denison job after deputy director of athletics Sara Lee retired from coaching. Hirt, who played at Kenyon College and previously coached at Oberlin College, had watched from afar as Carney-DeBord transformed the Big Red athletic department.
She added women’s fencing and men’s and women’s squash to the varsity sports lineup. She made coaches for men’s and women’s golf full-time positions and secured funding to expand coaching staff across the board.
Hirt knew she could rely on the experience of Lee and Carney-DeBord in difficult times but never imagined it would come while spending 18 days in the hospital. The athletic director ensured first-year assistant Olivia Woolam had everything she required to navigate the season’s opening weeks. The Big Red, rallying behind their ailing coach, jumped to a 4-1 start.
Carney-DeBord sent text messages and handwritten notes of encouragement to “Coach Mo” as she endured energy-sapping cancer treatments. She even employed the department’s “mascot,” Bernice, a large stuffed bear Carney-DeBord had won in an auction.
Bernice was passed around to different Big Red teams with instructions to dress her up in sports gear and film her performing athletic feats.
“I saw Bernice pole vaulting and wearing swimming goggles as she stood on the blocks,” Hirt said. “It put a smile on my face during some tough times.”
The Big Red women’s basketball team evolved into the feel-good story of the year as Hirt returned to the bench after Thanksgiving and led it to a 20-win season.
She’s back to full strength and fulfilling the potential Carney-DeBord saw in her three years ago.
“Anytime I have a top recruit on campus, I make sure she meets Nan,” Hirt said. “She embodies everything that’s great about Denison.”
Colorful character
The red pantsuit Carney-DeBord wears to special events has become her signature look. Athletes love the bold fashion statement, one symbolizing an administrator who bleeds school colors.
She got the idea from Board of Trustees member Abigail Pringle ’96, president of Wendy’s national division.
“We were at a meeting and Abigail was wearing a red suit and I said, ‘Wow, you really flash in that suit,’” the athletic director recalled. “And Abigail looked at me and said, ‘You need to get one.’”
Carney-DeBord has a nickname every bit as colorful as the pantsuit. A colleague in athletic administration dubbed her “The Hummingbird” because she’s forever in motion.
She golfs. She skis cross-country. She takes part in foul-shooting contests with current players to promote the men’s and women’s programs on social media.
“Enthusiasm is a contagion that fuels me,” Carney-DeBord said. “I get a lot of my fuel from the students and coaches. I like to surround myself with high-energy people who want to find ways to improve Denison.”
Through department-wide initiatives, Carney-DeBord placed an emphasis on development and leadership for both coaches and athletes. She championed a plan to wed data analytics and sports science to help keep Denison athletes healthier. A tireless fundraiser, she also oversaw the expansion and renovation of the Mitchell Center, the building of Kienzle-Hylbert Stadium for the lacrosse and soccer teams, and significant upgrades to the softball and baseball fields.
‘Oh my God, it's you’
Carney-DeBord heard the rumors. A docent leading campus tours was telling prospective students how the athletic director once offered a field hockey recruit a ride to the airport in her hour of need.
One day outside Mitchell Center, she spotted the docent and overheard the story.
“Oh my God, it’s you,” Carney-DeBord said to Hinshaw.
Nan and Kate have been on a first-name basis ever since. Hinshaw blossomed into a starter on the field hockey team. She helped found “Uncut on The Hill,” a digital journalism platform for Denison athletes to share their stories through podcasts and articles.
When Carney-DeBord formed a committee to find ways to promote the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Denison, she included Hinshaw, who contacted more than 100 former Big Red female athletes for her research.
She digitally designed the Title IX mural that was unveiled at Big Red Weekend 2022 and subsequently was inspired to create a video about trailblazing women in sports for her senior exhibition for studio art.
“Nan started tearing up watching the video,” said Hinshaw, now a financial risk consultant for Ernst & Young.
The spring of 2025 represents the final ride for an iconic athletic director who has delivered an unrivaled period of sustained success. And the story of how she and Hinshaw met on that Sunday morning reveals exactly how Carney-DeBord did it.
“I never wanted to be the administrator who sat behind a computer all day,” Carney-DeBord said. “The best way to serve student-athletes and coaches is to be present in their world. I had the pleasure of doing it for 14 years at Denison and I loved every minute of it. ”