Biography

Marlene Navor is in her third year as Director of Communications primarily working with Head Coach Bruce Pearl and the nationally-ranked and defending SEC Tournament champion men’s basketball program at Auburn University.

During her first season on The Plains, the Tigers won the SEC regular-season championship, earned the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking in the national polls, claimed a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and had two players go in the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft in Jabari Smith (No. 3 overall by the Houston Rockets) and Walker Kessler (No. 22 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies).

Navor originally came to The Plains hired as Director of Recruiting Operations (Creative Content) on Head Women’s Basketball Coach Johnnie Harris’ coaching staff. While with the women, she helped the program sign a Top 20-ranked recruiting class, set the brand identity for Coach J and her summer basketball camps as well as grew the team’s social media and recruiting accounts by 10K.

Prior to Auburn, Navor previously spent the last 11 years as Director of Athletics Communications and Creative Content at the College of Charleston.

In that capacity, Navor oversaw the daily media relations, publicity and multimedia efforts for the Cougars’ 19-varsity sport program which competes in the Colonial Athletic Association. She primarily worked with men's basketball, men's and women's golf and equestrian.

During her time at The College, the school became one of the most-recognizable and unique Division I mid-major programs nestled in one of the nation’s most historic cities through its national and local media reach, visual presentation and social media.

“Marlene is a gifted, creative person,” Former CofC Director of Athletics Joe Hull said. “She understands how to tell a story through pictures and words in a way that makes the story come alive.”

During her first season at CofC in 2010-11, the men's basketball team won the Southern Conference regular-season title and reached the quarterfinals of the Postseason NIT under former head coach Bobby Cremins. She promoted the school’s second-ever All-American, all-time leading scorer and 2011 NBA Draft pick in Andrew Goudelock, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets. In 2017-18, the Cougars won the CAA regular-season and tournament titles and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 19 years.

Navor’s strength has always been graphic design and having an eye for the visual. She has spent the last 20 years in Division I college athletics working with local and national media outlets including as an assistant media relations director at Texas A&M University under CoSIDA Hall of Famer Alan Cannon. Navor served as the primary contact for both the nationally-ranked women’s basketball and men’s tennis programs for four years (2006-10) prior to CofC.

There, she was a part of a creative and innovative SID and graphic design team which changed the entire college landscape of the traditional media guide to its current state as a recruiting and/or virtual guide. Her 2008-09 women’s basketball hardcover recruiting guide received “Best in the Nation” distinction by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and was deemed vital by the coaching staff as the “first-look” recruits saw before making an official visit on campus.

“Marlene was on the cutting edge of technology and sports media at Texas A&M,” said Gary Blair, head coach of the 2011 national champion Aggies. “In her four years here, we not only wanted to be different, but we wanted to be a trailblazer in recruiting and information about our team to the media.”

Her women's basketball team at Texas A&M won the Big 12 Conference championship title three times in 2007, 2008 and 2010 and made four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The Aggies were eight points shy of their first Final Four appearance in school history with a hard-fought loss to top-seeded Tennessee led by Candace Parker in the 2008 Elite Eight. They were also ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation during her time in Aggieland.

Navor is only the third-ever sports information director in CofC Athletics history and is one of only a few female head SIDs at a NCAA Division I institution in the country.

Prior to A&M, Navor was an assistant sports information director at Kansas State University (2003-06) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2001-03). Her women's basketball team at K-State won the Postseason WNIT in 2006, while her women's basketball team at UNLV reached the NCAA Tournament in 2002. While in Las Vegas, she also volunteered with the Tiger Woods Foundation's annual charity and fundraising event, Tiger Jam, held at Mandalay Bay.

Overall, she has handled the media relations efforts for a U.S. Open (tennis) qualifier, eight U.S. Amateur (golf) qualifiers, 14 All-Americans, two John R. Wooden and Naismith National Player of the Year Award finalists, five conference players of the year, six Academic All-Americans, five NBA Draft picks, including two first-rounders in 2022, and 11 current and former WNBA players.

A graduate of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, Navor earned her bachelor’s degree in communication with an emphasis in print journalism and a minor in sport management in 2000. She served as a student assistant in the WSU sports information office under CoSIDA Hall of Famer Rod Commons for four years (1997-2000), volunteer student assistant in the UTEP sports information office (Summer of 1998), sports editor of the WSU student newspaper, The Daily Evergreen (Summer of 1999), and later completed an athletic communications internship at the University of Connecticut (2000-01).

The Olympia, Wash., native is a member of the CoSIDA Job Seekers Committee and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and currently resides on Daniel Island. She has aided in media coordination for the 2000 NCAA Men's Midwest Regional in Auburn Hills, Mich., 2010 NCAA Women's Final Four in San Antonio, Texas, 2011 NCAA Women's Final Four in Indianapolis, Ind., 2011 NCAA Final Four in Houston, Texas, 2014 NCAA Final Four in Arlington, Texas, 2018 NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, Texas, 2020 NCAA Final Four in Atlanta (cancelled) and 2023 NCAA Final Four in Houston.

A former military brat, she is the daughter of Martin Navor, Jr., and the late Maxine Navor, both originally from the Big Island of Hawai'i. Her father spent 40 years as an officer in the U.S. Army and working for the Department of Defense with deployments to Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.