Marcella Zalot begins her sixth year as Colby's Director of Athletics in the 2007-08 academic year. She arrived on Mayflower Hill in 1997 to serve as associate athletics director and senior women's athletics administrator.
Zalot earned her bachelor's degree in economics from Smith College in 1987. While at Smith, she was a goalkeeper on the soccer team that went to the first-ever NCAA Division III women's soccer tournament and was a 1,000-point scorer and two-year captain in basketball. Zalot went on to earn her master's degree in sports management from the University of Massachusetts in 1990. While at UMass, she served as a graduate assistant coach in women's basketball.
Zalot served for three years as an eligibility representative for the National Collegiate Athletic Association in Overland Park, Kansas, analyzing and researching violations by NCAA member institutions to determine the status of involved student-athletes. She returned to the East Coast in 1992 as an assistant director of athletics at Harvard University with primary responsibility for compliance issues.
During her time as Colby's associate athletics director, Zalot was responsible for overseeing budgets and other administrative duties associated with the 32 intercollegiate varsity sports, 12 club sports and the intramural athletics program at Colby.
As director of athletics, Zalot is responsible for all aspects of the program including hiring and supervision of coaching staff, managing and enhancing Colby's state-of-the-art athletic facilities, and program development. Colby had its best two finishes ever in 2004 and 2005 in the Director's Cup standings.
Zalot has participated in numerous national, regional and all-campus initiatives. She currently is a member of the Women's Sports Foundation and the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators. Zalot also is a member of Colby's Diversity Oversight Team and is on the advisory committee for "Sports Done Right", a federally funded initiative to address issues and concerns in sports.
