‘I am a female Black athletic director.’ Nina King’s faith in Duke helps her reach goal.

Nina King and her husband arrived at Duke 13 years ago this summer, immediately deciding Durham was a place they wanted to call home for a long time.

Over the years, as her responsibilities in Duke’s athletic department grew and her national reputation strengthened, opportunities to leave opened but she let them pass.

This week, her faith in Duke and commitment to Durham were rewarded when she was named the school’s next athletic director.

“I’m often asked ‘Why Duke?’” King, 42, said Friday during a press conference at Cameron Indoor Stadium. “For me the answer is simple. Duke is a magical place. The commitment to excellence is unmistakable. And, most importantly, the drive and commitment amongst all the Duke student-athletes is unmistakable.”

By staying at Duke and working under longtime athletic director Kevin White, King gained the knowledge and experience that helped her to win over the school’s search committee and president Vince Price to be selected for the job. White announced his retirement from the position in January.

King is the first woman and the first person of color to lead Duke’s athletic department. She’s just the sixth female athletic director among the Power Five conference schools, with just three of them being Black women.

“I do want to recognize the importance of my appointment,” King said. “I am a female Black athletic director. There are only a few of us around the country. We’ve got work to do in our profession to continue to build a pipeline and ensure that deserving people have a chance to grow and to lead.”

From Notre Dame to Tulane to Durham

King, Duke’s deputy senior athletic director and chief of staff, moves into her new position full-time on Sept. 1, when White steps aside. He will continue to teach sports business classes at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

A Notre Dame graduate who has a law degree from Tulane, King has known and worked for White for most of the last 20 years.

When he left Notre Dame to become Duke’s athletic director in 2008, King joined his staff in September of that year.

Earlier this year, she was among the final candidates to become Northwestern’s athletic director. At the same time, Duke was conducting its search to replace White.

Just like in the past when other schools were interested in prying her away, King knew Duke was where she wanted to stay.

“Durham is a special place, a unique and thriving community and the only place my children have called home,” King said.

Duke still recovering from COVID-19 pandemic

During her press conference, King spoke directly to Duke athletics employees, expressing her appreciation for them and her desire to continue working with them to make Blue Devils teams successful.

“We have been through a lot together,” King said. “I want everyone to know, there is no other group of people I want to be in the trenches with day in and day out. What we do is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. We are a family doing this together for our student-athletes and community.”

She’ll take over Duke athletics as the school is still recovering financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike other schools, Duke did not allow any spectators at its sporting events throughout the school year.

The loss of revenue plus the added costs of health and safety measures for students and staff during the pandemic meant the school absorbed a loss of between $15-25 million, school officials estimate.

“It has been a challenge,” King said. “But I’m really excited to partner with our next executive vice president Daniel Ennis. We have been working together for the past six months. I’m really excited about our financial future. We are in a good place and we will be ready for 21-22 and whatever that may mean, hopefully, as we get out of this COVID fog and start to open up.”

‘Allow them to profit off their name, image and likeness’

King also steps into her new leadership role at a time when college athletics as a whole is enduring historic change. Legislative bodies in various states have enacted new laws — set to take effect July 1 — that will allow athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness.

The NCAA has yet to pass blanket policies to cover all its member schools, with some school leaders coming out against athletes receiving such compensation.

King, though, wants Duke to be on the cutting edge of the changes, embracing the expanding opportunities.

“I think we should be a leader at the forefront of change,” King said. “That is what Duke is all about. We are going to continue to innovate and be modern. Name, image and likeness is a good thing. Change is OK. The NCAA, as an organization, needs to remain nimble and flexible. We need to be ready to provide our student-athletes greater opportunities and allow them to profit off their name, image and likeness, with the appropriate guardrails. Duke will be ready.”

How Nina King got the AD job

Duke president Vince Price impaneled a search committee to help find White’s replacement that engaged with sitting athletic directors from other schools and others, like King, who had never been an athletic director.

In the end, Price said, the best choice was already at Duke.

“Duke is going from strength to strength,” Price said. “Duke is better resourced, more inclusive, more successful than ever before thanks in no small part to Nina’s contributions over the past decade. She has earned the respect and appreciation of colleagues, coaches and student-athletes here at Duke and around the country for her leadership, her collegiality and her abiding commitment to our mission and values.”

In offering her the job earlier this week and introducing her during Friday’s press conference, Price made a historic decision for Duke. King embraces not only her new responsibilities but how important her promotion is for college athletics as a whole.

“I want to show little girls like me that this is possible,” King said. “Six female ADs in Power 5? Three Black females? We need to do better. I’m happy to be kind of the next step toward progress. I’m committed to helping ensure more females, more people of color have opportunities like I do.”