Ryan Pisarri was named director of athletics at Tufts University in the summer of 2025. 

Pisarri came to Tufts after a long tenure at Rutgers University, most recently serving as deputy athletic director for competitive excellence and chief of staff before being appointed in August 2024 as interim athletic director. As head of Rutgers athletics, he oversees 24 programs with some 800 student-athletes and more than 300 staff members. He also experienced collegiate athletics as a student-athlete, playing football at the University of Pennsylvania.

The search committee was chaired by Ted Tye, A79, A06P, A13P, vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Athletics Board of Advisors and Marty Ray, vice president of strategic initiatives and chief of staff to the president. The committee included faculty, staff, members of the Athletics Board of Advisors, coaches, and student-athletes.

A student-athlete at the University of Pennsylvania who played football as an undergraduate, Pisarri worked in financial services after college before joining the Department of Athletics at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, in 2011. By 2016 he was senior athletic associate director, directing sports administration for 24 programs. He was primary sports administrator for football, men’s basketball, baseball, and men’s golf.

In 2022, he was promoted to deputy athletic director for competitive excellence, helping oversee and manage the athletics department’s day-to-day operations and end-of-year evaluations for all athletic programs, including head coach reviews. He led the implementation of new sports administration policies and procedures while continuing as primary sports administrator for his high-profile portfolio of sports and as a fundraising advisor.

Along the way, he earned a master’s in education in 2021 and a master’s in business administration in 2024, both from Rutgers.