Vanderbilt women's basketball head coach Stephanie White speaks at her introductory press conference May 25, 2016.
White is currently the coach of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever after a five-year professional basketball career. She played college basketball at Purdue, and said at the press conference that her college decision came down to Purdue and Vanderbilt. White also became the first coach in WNBA history to lead her team to the finals in her first season in 2015.
She takes over for Melanie Balcomb, who resigned in April after 14 seasons in charge of the women’s basketball program.
In his opening remarks, Director of Athletics David Williams said he and Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos decided to take a more hands-off approach to this coaching vacancy, as opposed to their very active role in the search that brought in Bryce Drew as the men’s basketball coach.