On Sept. 29, St. Joe’s student-athletes received an email from the athletic department announcing athletic director Jill Bodensteiner would be taking an indefinite leave of absence to be with her ailing mother in Indiana. 

Bodensteiner said she would return eventually and encouraged St. Joe’s athletes to keep making her proud.

Bodensteiner was named athletic director on Hawk Hill in 2018 and has seen several teams thrive while serving in the position. The field hockey team won three Atlantic 10 championships, and the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams made their first NCAA Tournament appearances in 2022.

Perhaps the most polarizing decision by the university during Bodensteiner’s tenure has been the 2019 firing of former men’s basketball head coach, Phil Martelli, ending his 24-year career on Hawk Hill. It was a move Bodensteiner would later refer to as “unequivocally the hardest decision I’ve made in my life.”

Bodensteiner pushed for the creation of the athletic department’s first diversity, equity and inclusion group and action plan.

Bodensteiner also promoted well-being and mental health for St. Joe’s athletes by bringing on sports psychologists and a partnership with the Calm app.

Before her arrival at St. Joe’s, Bodensteiner served as a senior associate athletic director at University of Notre Dame.

While in South Bend, Indiana, Bodensteiner served on the NCAA’s committee on women’s athletics, which was responsible for providing equal opportunities for women in collegiate athletics.

The university has yet to name an interim athletic director.

This article was first published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sept. 29, 2022 as part of the Inquirer’s college correspondent program.