Kathy Delaney-Smith is a legendary coach, gender equity advocate, and leadership expert. She is the winningest coach of any sport – men’s or women’s – in the history of the Ivy League. For the past five decades, Kathy’s mission and life’s work has been teaching, training, inspiring, and empowering young women.

The 2021-22 season marked Kathy’s 40th and final season as the Head Coach of Harvard Women’s Basketball. Kathy holds one of the longest coaching tenures in the history of Division-I Women’s Basketball, amassing a 630-434 overall record, with a 367-167 record in Ivy League play. 

Prior to Harvard, Kathy compiled an incredible 204-31 record at Westwood (MA) High School, with an unparalleled six undefeated regular seasons and one Massachusetts state title, in addition to national-record, 96 straight wins in the regular season. 

Kathy graduated from Bridgewater State, where she competed as a synchronized swimmer. Prior to Bridgewater, she earned the distinction of being the first Massachusetts high school girl’s basketball player to score 1,000 points while playing for her mother, the late Peg Delaney, at Sacred Heart of Newton.

In recognition of her contributions to the game, Kathy was part of the inaugural class to be inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in October 2003. She has won a bevy of awards including the Gilda Radner Award for demonstrating hope and determination in facing cancer and the WBCA’s Carol Eckman Award for her exceptional sportsmanship, commitment to student-athletes, honesty, ethics, courage, and dedication to purpose.

Additionally, Kathy serves on the Board of Directors for the Shooting Touch, a global sport-for-development organization whose mission is to use the mobilizing power of basketball to bridge health and opportunity gaps for youth and women facing racial, gender, and economic inequalities.

Kathy resides in Newton, Massachusetts and is always up for a game of tennis or a glass of wine with friends when she is not busy working on her upcoming book, which she hopes to publish in the coming year.