In her 28th year with Loyola University Chicago Athletics, Carolyn Vellos O'Connell is vital to the day-to-day operations of the Loyola Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Her responsibilities as senior associate athletics director include those of senior woman administrator, a position she has held since 1984.

As senior associate athletics director, O'Connell is responsible for supervising various men's and women's sports programs, as well as the spirit program. Her other responsibilities include serving as the departmental liaison to the offices of admissions, residence life, student financial assistance and learning assistance, while also serving as the NCAA compliance officer for Loyola.

A well-respected administrator, O'Connell serves on numerous committees. She is a chair of both the Horizon League Championships and Facilities Committee and the Awards Committee. She has also served on the Local Organizing Committee for the Women's Leadership Symposium.

On campus, O'Connell has served as the chair of the Staff Affairs University Policy Committee, one of seven committees which comprise the President's Shared Governance structure to assist in the process of creating policies that best advance the mission of the university. She was also appointed by the President to serve on the Commission of the Status of Women at Loyola University Chicago.

A former member of the NCAA Initial Eligibility Waiver Committee, O'Connell is in her sixth year of service as a member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement. She was also recently selected as one of 12 individuals nationwide to participate in the NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program thanks to her exceeding potential to one day lead an athletics department or conference office. O'Connell most recently presented on Work/Life Balance in Intercollegiate Athletics at the 2007 NCAA Gender Equity and Issues Forum. She has also served on three site visits as an NCAA Peer Review Team member.

Prior to 1984, O'Connell also held the assistant athletics director position, the coordinator for women's athletics, assistant women's basketball coach and the head women's volleyball coach titles. As volleyball coach at Loyola from 1979-83, she compiled an overall record of 173-87 and was named North Star Conference Coach-of-the-Year in 1983, leading her team to the league championship. She was an assistant coach for the Midwest men's volleyball team at the National Sports Festival in Syracuse, N.Y.

Before joining the Loyola staff in 1979, O'Connell spent five years teaching and coaching at Resurrection High School in Chicago. A 1974 graduate of DePaul University, she received her bachelor's degree in education. A standout on the women's volleyball team, she was inducted into DePaul's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993.

O'Connell and her husband Ray and two sons, Raymond and Peter, reside in Evanston.