Staff Directory

DeWayne Peevy

Title:
Senior Vice President & Director of Athletics
Email:
Phone:
(773) 325-7504

DeWayne Peevy, an admired and respected leader in collegiate athletics, was named the ninth director of athletics at DePaul University on Aug. 24, 2020. Peevy was added to the President's Cabinet and elevated to Vice President in July 2021. Peevy received a contract extension in 2026, further elevating him to Senior Vice President and retaining him as the leader of DePaul Athletics through June 30, 2031.

Peevy has helped elevate DePaul University into the national spotlight, including being recognized by Silver Waves Media in June 2026 as a “Top Athletic Director in America”.

In his role as Senior Vice President, Peevy has been distinctively committed to the university's shared governance process and meets regularly with leadership from DePaul's Faculty Council, Staff Council, and the Student Government Association (SGA), in addition to the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC), to foster transparency, consistent communication, and dialogue. Peevy currently serves on the DePaul University School of Hospitality & Sports Business Board of Directors.

Peevy’s first five-year vision for the department, the DREAM BIG Strategic Plan, announced in the Summer of 2021, called on DePaul to build a championship culture and become a premier program in the BIG EAST Conference. Building on that foundation, Peevy is now leading the rollout of “Beyond the Dream”, the department’s next strategic chapter.

Central to Peevy’s vision for delivering a championship-level experience for more than 230 student-athletes across DePaul’s 15 varsity programs has been a significant investment in athletics facilities. Under his leadership, DePaul replaced the playing surface at Wish Field, installed new videoboards at Wish Field/Cacciatore Stadium and McGrath-Phillips Arena, and launched a capital campaign to advance two transformational facility projects. The campaign’s first phase, completed in fall 2025, provided every varsity program with its own locker room for the first time in department history, along with a new weight room and extensive renovations to McGrath-Phillips Arena. The second phase centers on the construction of a dedicated basketball practice facility featuring purpose-built spaces for the men’s and women’s programs, a broadcast studio, and expanded sports medicine and sports performance areas.

DePaul student-athletes have risen to new heights in the classroom under Peevy’s direction, earning the top three department GPAs in school history. DePaul set the athletic department record in 2024-25 with a 3.607 grade point average while all 15 varsity sports programs have achieved a 3.0 or higher for back-to-back academic years. In 2025-26, DePaul had a record 198 student-athletes record a 3.0 or higher while the department average GPA has risen to a 3.516 during his tenure. Additionally, under Peevy’s guidance, DePaul reimagined the student-athlete experience with the launch of ELEVATE, a holistic approach to student-athlete development, in spring 2026. ELEVATE replaces a one-size-fits-all approach with individualized pathways tailored to each student-athlete's academic, personal and professional ambitions.

Peevy has further committed DePaul to the holistic care of its student-athletes across all sports with the introduction of mandatory mental health screenings for all student-athletes in partnership with DePaul’s Center for Counseling and Wellness (CCW) and the modernization of the department’s electronic medical records and sports performance data systems to enhance coordinated care and performance monitoring.

Since first arriving in Lincoln Park, Peevy has helped the DePaul Athletics department undergo a dramatic transformation that included the addition of several new positions, development of new senior and executive leadership teams and elevation of several roles to ensure a dedicated focus in strategic and emerging business areas. Several positions, including Sports Nutritionist (RDN), two additional athletic trainers, an Associate Athletics Director for NCAA Compliance, Associate Athletics Director for NIL Innovation & Strategy, and Associate AD for Information Technology & Data Systems, have been added in Peevy’s time. The Student-Athlete Experience division was also formed to connect all educational programming provided for student-athletes under one umbrella, creating a cohesive, scaffolded, and inclusive experience.

In his first year, Peevy achieved the fourth-best fundraising year in the department's history, raising $3.05M – a number that has continued to rise each year, culminating with a department record $15.6 million in 2025-26. With an additional focus on ticket sales and revenue growth, under Peevy's leadership the Blue Demons have recorded a number of attendance and revenue records including the department's first sellout of Wintrust Arena, highest season ticket renewal rate in the history of the facility, highest-attended regular-season women's basketball game in program history, the men's soccer program's first capacity crowd and highest ticket sales revenue in school history for volleyball, softball and men's soccer.

DePaul Athletics has made significant strides in advancing its strategic and corporate partnerships, national visibility and digital presence under Peevy's leadership. He initiated DePaul Athletics' brand modernization initiative, logo updates and the resurgence of the iconic Billy Blue Demon vintage logo and the renewal of the department’s partnership with Nike in February 2026. Since August 2021, the Blue Demons have seen a 43% increase in royalties and the highest gross merchandise sales in department history through the addition of several key licensees and national retail placements. Further, the Blue Demons completed a complete redesign of DePaul's webpage, DePaulBlueDemons.com, the launch of the official DePaul Blue Demons app and a multi-year partnership with PlayFly Sports to serve as the Blue Demons multimedia rights partner, focused on increasing DePaul's sponsorship revenues. During his tenure, the Blue Demons have seen record television viewership growth for both its basketball programs and enhanced live streaming and broadcast capabilities for DePaul soccer, softball, and volleyball. Furthering that commitment in August 2023, the Blue Demons announced an innovative, multi-year broadcast partnership with the Marquee Sports Network to enhance the regional viewership and exposure of DePaul's men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, and softball events.

Under Peevy's guidance, the Blue Demons re-instituted the Hall of Fame with a revised selection process. As a part of the Hall of Fame process, the Blue Demons retired three jerseys during the 2023-24 season, including the first ever for a non-men's basketball athlete, as they retired Terry Cummings (Men's Basketball), Diana Vines (Women's Basketball) and Dave Dopek (Track & Field) jerseys.

DePaul has pivoted toward being one of the most innovative institutions in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) space by executing several new partnerships. Peevy was at the forefront of the college landscape with the addition of a full-time NIL role in 2024, helping develop departmental NIL strategy and ensuring department efforts are coordinated and effective, as well as the addition of program-specific general managers within DePaul’s basketball programs. Notably, Peevy led interdisciplinary partnerships with DePaul University's Driehaus College of Business and College of Communication to explore diverse learning opportunities that explore the intersection of athletics and business. Additionally, with the passing of the House vs. NCAA case in June 2025, DePaul launched the Fund for Men's Basketball Excellence and the Doug Bruno Fund for Women's Basketball Excellence to help support both Blue Demon basketball programs in the new era of college athletics.

Peevy has successfully recruited and hired multiple head coaches across DePaul's athletic programs - including the most recent hire of PGA Tour caddy and DePaul alum, Ryan Jamison, to lead the Blue Demons golf program. Peevy hired former Big Ten and BIG EAST Coach of the Year, Chris Holtmann, as the leader of the men's basketball program in March 2024, followed by the elevation of women's basketball's Jill M. Pizzotti to head coach in March 2025.

During his 12-year tenure at Kentucky, Peevy rose through increasingly senior leadership roles before being named deputy athletics director in 2013. His broad portfolio included fundraising, strategic planning, communications, marketing, video, financial and revenue operations, and oversight of Kentucky men’s basketball, considered the most successful NCAA Division I basketball program in history in both all-time wins and winning percentage. He also served as the department’s liaison to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and SEC Network.

Known for his creative scheduling strategies, Peevy led the creation of the CBS Sports Classic, which started in 2014 and recently signed a three-year extension through 2022. In addition to leading negotiations on the financial terms, he also played a primary role in selecting the teams, television network and event management company. All four schools involved — Kentucky, North Carolina, UCLA and Ohio State — have benefited from schedule upgrades, as well as a marquee neutral site doubleheader in major cities.

Donations and capital gifts at Kentucky increased significantly under Peevy's leadership. As supervisor of the K Fund, Kentucky's fundraising arm, he secured gifts totaling $17 million of the $27 million raised for a new football training center, as well as $2.5 million of the $4 million for the men's basketball practice locker room renovation project.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Peevy's 23-year career in collegiate athletics began in media relations. He served as the sports information director for his alma mater, the University of Montevallo in Alabama, for three years before becoming the media relations director for the Southeastern Conference Office. He also served on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Final Four Media Coordination Committee through the 2013 NCAA Championship. He previously was the sports information director representative on the board of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

Peevy received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from the University of Montevallo and earned his master's degree at the University of Kentucky/University of Louisville Executive MBA program in May 2021. He and his wife, Allison, have two children: Kaitlyn and Braden.