Candice Storey Lee

Candice Storey Lee is Vanderbilt’s vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletic director.

Named to the position on May 21, 2020, Lee is Vanderbilt’s first female athletic director and the first Black woman to head an SEC athletics program.

A former member of the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team, Lee has earned undergraduate, master’s and doctorate degrees from Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development and has been an inspirational leader in athletics and the wider Vanderbilt community since arriving on campus as a first-year student in 1996.

Lee began her athletics administration career at Vanderbilt in 2002, serving first as an academic adviser and then compliance director. Working under the late athletic director David Williams, Lee was named the department’s senior woman administrator in 2004, a responsibility she held until 2020. She also assumed the title of deputy athletic director in 2016, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the athletic department and serving as the sport administrator for football and women’s basketball.

A team captain, four-year letter winner, and five-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection as a member of the Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball team, Lee battled through knee injuries and helped lead the Commodores to an SEC Tournament championship in her final season (2002). She graduated from Vanderbilt with a bachelor of science degree in human and organizational development in 2000, received her master’s degree in counseling in 2002 and a doctorate in higher education administration in 2012.

A model student-athlete at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama, she was named to the 2022 class of the Huntsville-Madison County (Ala.) Athletic Hall of Fame.

Beyond her duties at Vanderbilt, Lee is a leader in college athletics at a national level. She serves on the Southeastern Conference’s Council on Racial Equity and Social Justice and previously served on the executive committee of the Black Athletic Directors Alliance. A member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Competition Committee, she also formerly served as a member of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee and as chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Committee.

Lee has been recognized by peers and media as one of the leading young administrators in college athletics. In 2024, she was the Sandy Barbour Nike Division I FBS  Executive of the Year and she was also named Athletic Director of the Year at the Black Student-Athlete Summit in 2022. The Sports Business Journal named her to its college sports “Power Players” list in 2019, and Adidas named her to its “NEXT UP” class in 2018. In addition, Lee was the recipient of the John McClendon Scholarship for Black administrators in 2017.

Lee has also built deep roots as a longtime fixture in the Nashville community. She currently serves or has served on the boards of directors for the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and Nashville Sports Council. She was named a 2019–20 fellow of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association’s executive leadership institute and is a graduate of the 2012 class of Leadership Nashville and the 2012 Vanderbilt Leadership Academy. In 2021, Lee received Peabody College’s Distinguished Alumna Award. Members of Vanderbilt’s student-athlete advisory committee awarded Lee their inaugural staff appreciation award in 2022 in recognition of her leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lee is committed to a vision that one of the world’s preeminent academic institutions in one of the nation’s best cities can thrive in the most competitive athletic conference in college sports. Working in partnership with Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, she led development of the Vandy United Fund in 2021.  The unprecedented and ongoing investment in athletics reflects the university’s commitment to empowering student-athletes to realize their full potential on and off the field.

During Lee’s time at Vanderbilt, student-athletes have won six team and two individual national championships in baseball (two), bowling (three), men’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s track and field. Vanderbilt teams have also won more than 20 conference championships and tournament titles, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, bowling, women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, lacrosse, soccer, women’s tennis and track and field. Additionally, the football team has played in six bowl games since breaking a 26-year bowl drought in 2008.

Lee’s commitment to a well-rounded student-athlete experience is evident in Vanderbilt’s academic record. In 2023-24, five Commodore programs recorded perfect APR marks. During the spring semester, Vanderbilt student-athletes posted a collective 3.44 GPA, the 29th consecutive semester with an Athletics GPA of better than 3.00. In all, 49 student-athletes had perfect 4.0 GPAs, while 189 made the Dean’s List.

Lee is married to Sean Lee, the executive director of a Middle Tennessee housing authority. They have an adult son, Andrew.