Koko Nelson joined head coach Shea Ralph’s staff as the Vanderbilt women’s basketball director of recruiting in January of 2022. The 2025-26 season is her fifth with the program.

Nelson will be responsible for aiding the coaching staff in all areas of recruiting, including travel, correspondence, campus visits, and sharing what makes Vanderbilt women’s basketball an elite program among the SEC and national competition.

She served in a similar capacity with first-year head coach Clark Lea and the Vanderbilt football program as the recruiting operations coordinator. She joined the Commodores in 2021, guiding the program to one of its best recruiting classes in program history.

Nelson spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons with the Minnesota football program as a recruiting and graphics design assistant. During her time with the Golden Gophers, the team went 14-6 and won the 2019 Outback Bowl with a 31-34 victory against Auburn.

A Notre Dame graduate, Nelson was a 2018 NCAA national champion with the women’s basketball program. She was a student-athlete from 2013-18 and a two-time ACC All-Academic honoree.

While at Notre Dame, Nelson also worked as a graphic design intern, creating graphics for all sports to use on UND.com, emails and social media. She also worked as an intern with Winning Edge Leadership and made custom social media graphics for leadership retreat participants.