Alyse Wells-Kilbert joined the Jackson State University Division of Athletics staff in July of 2018 as the Associate Athletics Director for Fiscal Management. One year later, she was promoted to Associate Vice-President for Athletics/Senior Woman Administrator.
In her role, Wells-Kilbert oversees the day-to-day operations of the athletics program, including fiscal management affairs such as business, ticketing, stadium operations, sports oversight, and sports medicine. She also chairs the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Senior Woman Administrators. In March of 2023, she was appointed to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee for a four-year term, effective September 2023.
Regarded as one of the most influential female sports administrators in the SWAC, among HBCU institutions and in the NCAA as a whole, Wells-Kilbert rose up the ladder of leadership in NCAA Division I athletics from humble beginnings as a celebrated student-athlete at Edinburgh High School in Edinburgh, Miss., where she held class valedictorian rank and later at Meridian Community College in Meridian, Miss., where she graduated with a Business and Office Technology Degree in 1989 and at Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business in 1991.
While competing in two sports (women’s basketball and softball) at Meridian Community College, Wells-Kilbert was an Academic All-American, the recipient of the college’s Circle of Excellence Award and Most Outstanding Business Student award. She also was the recipient of the Larry Scott Memorial Award, the award given to MCC’s Most Outstanding Student-Athlete.
At Belhaven, Wells-Kilbert’s success in the classroom and in athletics continued. While competing in both basketball and softball, she was the first female recipient of the Charles Rugg Scholar-Athlete Award, which is given to the college’s Most Outstanding Student-Athlete. Her success as a student-athlete would propel her to a ledger of outstanding accomplishments in the workforce.
Following a four-year stint as an accountant with the Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi (MEAM) in Jackson, Miss., Wells-Kilbert embarked upon a career in higher education coaching, with a first stop at her alma mater, where she was a two-sport head coach at Belhaven. She held positions as Head Softball Coach and Head Women’s Basketball Coach. Her titles as head coach were augmented with roles as Assistant Athletics Director/Associate Athletics Director, Admissions Counselor and Residence Director.
In 2001, Wells-Kilbert was hired as Head Volleyball Coach and Director of the Student-Athlete Academic Center at Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, Miss. She also assisted Nate Kilbert with the women’s basketball program. Two years later, she was given the additional title of Senior Woman Administrator, dual roles. She served MVSU as Assistant Athletics Director for Academics and Head Volleyball Coach.
Wells-Kilbert left MVSU in 2012 to become the Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in Pine Bluff, Ark. At UAPB, she supervised the Athletics Business Office and the Athletics Ticket Office while also overseeing Academic Progress Rate (APR), Academic Performance Program (APP) and Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) reporting to the NCAA. Additionally, she served as the athletics program’s Title IX Coordinator and Game Day Supervisor. She coordinated the hiring process for athletics staff members and organized fundraising and corporate partnerships for the athletics program.
A veteran of nearly 30 years of athletics administrative and coaching experience on the collegiate level, Wells-Kilbert’s talents have been recognized and utilized as she has served the conference as an integral member of the SWAC APR Task Force for more than eight years. She was the recipient of the SWAC Alumni Association’s Charles “Chuck” Prophet Wagon Master Award in 2015 and in 2023 she was honored as a Top Distinguished Business Woman in the state of Mississippi by the Mississippi Business Journal. During the Journal’s Woman of the Year Finalists Luncheon on February 15, 2024, she was honored as a Top 10 finalist for the coveted Mississippi Business Woman of the Year honor, out of a field of 50 contenders.
Wells-Kilbert is an active member of several professional organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Directors of America (NACDA), the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Professionals (N4A), the College Athletic Business Management Association (CABMA), the National Association of Athletic Ticketing and Sales Operations (NAATSO), the National Association of Athletics Compliance (NAAC), Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association (NACDA DI FCS), and Women Leaders in College Sports.
Wells-Kilbert is the wife of Nate Kilbert, the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Alcorn State University. They have one daughter, Tierra Kilbert.
