Dana Garfield was named the seventh Director of Athletics at Johnson & Wales University (Providence) during the summer of 2019. Since her arrival, the Wildcats have won 23 conference championships and eight different programs have competed in the NCAA Tournament: men’s soccer, women’s soccer, field hockey, women’s volleyball, wrestling, baseball, softball, and women’s lacrosse. JWU has won the last four Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women’s Commissioner’s Cups (2022-25).
The 2024-25 year was a banner one for the Wildcats. Along with hosting (and winning) three GNAC Championships (field hockey, baseball, softball), JWU brought home its first-ever NCAA National Championship as the Wildcats won the 2025 NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championship in front of a raucous pro-JWU crowd at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence.
Garfield came to JWU after spending 12 years at Mitchell College, the last four as Director of Athletics. She arrived in 2006 as the Assistant Athletics Director and was promoted to Associate AD the following year. In that role, she oversaw compliance, game operations, scheduling and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
During her time as AD, the athletics department's growth and improvement culminated with the Mariners winning four conference titles and two-straight New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Men's Champions Cups. Garfield oversaw the launch the college's $2.8 million GameChanger Athletics Initiative in 2018 to reconfigure and renovate the athletics facilities.
Garfield was hired as the head softball coach at Providence College in 1997 and spent eight seasons at the helm of the program (1997-2005). She recorded consecutive 30-win seasons in 2004 and 2005 and closed her coaching career at PC with 177 career wins. Garfield – whose teams set six program records – coached multiple all Big-East and Northeast Region selections, as well as 25 Big East Academic Team members.
A four-year member of the South Carolina softball program as a catcher and outfielder, Garfield was a four-time All-South performer and three-time First Team selection. As of 2023, she still holds Gamecock records for games played (268) and RBI (199), and sits second in batting average (.368), hits (304), and total bases (479). As a senior, Garfield earned All-America honors, was named Team MVP, and received the program’s scholar-athlete award. She received her B.S. in psychology with an emphasis in education.
Following her playing career at South Carolina, Garfield played for several Major ASA programs including the Reno Royals and prestigious New Jersey Majestics. Garfield was drafted in the 10th round of the Women's Professional Fastpitch League in 1996 but chose to continue her education and pursue her college coaching career. She was hired as the assistant coach at Georgia Southern University, where she helped the Eagles win their first ever Southern Conference title in 1996. Working primarily with pitchers and catchers, Garfield’s battery received Southern Conference Pitcher-of-the-Year and Player-of-the-Year honors respectively. While in Statesboro, she completed a Master of Education degree with an emphasis in counseling.
Garfield was most recently one of nine inductees for the 2024 Class of the University of South Carolina Association of Lettermen’s Athletics Hall of Fame, joining only 222 athletes who have been inducted since 1967.
Garfield resides in West Greenwich, R.I. with her wife Lindsay and two children, Addison and Tatum.
