Dean R. O'Keefe
Assistant VP of Student Affairs/Director of Athletics
Dean O'Keefe, a former student-athlete at Stonehill and the first graduate to lead his department, has served as Director of Athletics at the College since July 2015. O'Keefe was promoted to the position of Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs/Director of Athletics in conjunction with the institution's transition to NCAA Division I status as a member of the Northeast Conference. He oversees Stonehill's 23 varsity athletic programs, as well as the College's Department of Recreational Sports.
O’Keefe previously served the Merrimack College athletic department as its senior associate director of athletics, excluding the 2012-13 academic year when he was appointed interim director of athletics.
O’Keefe has been active within both the Northeast-10 and Hockey East, working with the NE-10 Committee on Sports Administration and Hall of Fame Committee. He served as chairperson of the Hockey East Executive Committee during the 2013-2014 athletic season. He was an adjunct professor in the School of Business at Merrimack College and has also served on the College’s Student Code of Conduct Review Committee, Enrollment Management Retention Committee, and Commencement Committee.
Prior to his career in collegiate athletics, O’Keefe worked for six years at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, as the vice president of marketing and sales. He also spent six years at Six Flags of New England as director of marketing, senior marketing manager, and promotions manager. O’Keefe worked for the 1996 Olympic Soccer Organizing Committee, World Cup USA in 1994, and interned at the NBA in Corporate Communications.
O’Keefe earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Stonehill College and was a four-year starter with the men’s soccer program. He was part of the program’s 1990 and 1991 Northeast-10 Championship teams and earned NE-10 All-Academic Team honors. O’Keefe received a Master of Arts in education, with a sport management concentration, from the University of Connecticut in 1996.