Robbi Pickeral Evans was named senior associate athletic director for communications at Vanderbilt in September 2026.
Pickeral Evans serves as a member of Vanderbilt Athletics’ executive leadership team, leads the department’s communications strategy and oversee its communications staff, advancing storytelling, media relations, digital engagement and creative content for Vanderbilt’s 17 varsity programs.
Pickeral Evans comes to Vanderbilt from North Carolina, where she has served as senior associate athletic director for external affairs and strategic communications since 2019. As a member of UNC Athletics’ executive team, Pickeral Evans has helped guide departmental initiatives, strategic planning, issues management, revenue generation, fundraising and executive and internal communications. She also served as sport administrator for women’s basketball and baseball.
Pickeral Evans has led communications strategies surrounding major coaching hires and retirements, national championships and some of the most prominent issues facing college athletics. She has also overseen content and productions for the Tar Heels’ 28 teams, reaching millions of fans across UNC’s digital and social media platforms while helping to strengthen collaboration among athletics, university communications, the ACC, fundraising, sponsorship and other campus partners.
Her leadership of major departmental initiatives has included UNC Athletics’ strategic planning process; facilities projects; the annual Carolina Sport and Entertainment Summit; a yearlong celebration of 50 years of Carolina women’s athletics; and the annual RAMMY Awards. She also supported the launch of FORevHER Tar Heels, a fundraising initiative that has generated more than $150 million for women’s athletics.
She previously oversaw the department’s marketing operation and its relationship with multimedia rights partner Tar Heel Sports Properties/Learfield. Before joining Carolina Athletics in 2017, Pickeral Evans worked in the university’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs, where she built and led a multimedia content team and provided strategic communications counsel to university leaders.
A former award-winning sports journalist, she reported for ESPN.com, The Raleigh News & Observer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the St. Petersburg Times. She began her career as a reporting intern at Sports Illustrated.
Pickeral Evans earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history from North Carolina.