Kiana (Verdugo) Verdugo-Maday will enter her 6th academic year at Alma College in the Fall of 2025.
Verdugo-Maday currently serves as the Interim Director of Athletics, a post she was named to in February of 2025.
She was elevated to the position of Assistant Vice President of Athletics in July of 2024. She oversees athletics compliance, staff development, sport supervision, and serves as the primary supervisor for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Previously, she had served as Associate Athletics Director for Compliance and Operations. She is also Alma's Senior Woman Administrator, and serves as a Deputy Title IX Coordinator. Verdugo was promoted to Associate Athletics Director for Operations and Compliance / Senior Woman Administrator on February 10, 2021, and was named a Deputy Title IX Coordinator for Alma College on February 1, 2023. She was hired on as Assistant Athletic Director for Operations and Compliance / Senior Woman Administrator by Director of Athletics Sarah Dehring on May 1, 2020.
Verdugo began a postgraduate internship with the NCAA in June of 2019. There, she worked with Division III governance committees, including the Management Council, Presidents Council, and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She was involved with the creation and implementation of infographics, championship coverage, and social media takeovers, as well as the planning and implementation of educational programs for the Division III membership, including athletics direct reports, faculty athletics representatives, senior woman administrators, student-athletes, and the NCAA Convention.
During the 2019 NFL season, Verdugo was a gameday operations intern for the Indianapolis Colts. Her responsibilities for the franchise included operating the customer service and ticket information kiosks throughout Lucas Oil Stadium, assisting with mobile ticketing, and executing pregame and postgame group experiences.
During the 2018-19 academic year, Verdugo was an intern for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference where she had a number of responsibilities, including overseeing the MIAC strategic plan, including organizing subcommittees, agendas, and plan goals, creating educational resources on missed class time policies, athletic trainer staffing, frequently asked compliance questions and the MIAC weather policy, providing support to all-conference committees with emphasis on coaches' committees and SAAC, and performing duties of contest scheduling, officials' education, film exchange, conference meeting recorder, updating the website, planning and executed operations for all 21 MIAC championships.
Verdugo graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2018 with bachelor's degrees in secondary education and english. She was a captain of the track and field team and earned Academic All-MIAC in 2017 and `18. She was also named an Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar, a USTFCCCA Academic All-American, and an NCAA Woman of the Year nominee in 2018. She earned her masters degree in sport coaching, leadership, and administration from Michigan State in 2022.
She resides near Alma with her two dogs, Piper and Rigatoni. Her husband Mitchell is a Visiting Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College.
