Jessica De Palo is in her 15th year with Columbia Athletics. As Columbia’s Senior Associate Athletics Director for Success Through Well-Being, she oversees the day-to-day operations of the Success Through Well-Being program, which supports all department matters related to academics, career development, mental performance, sports nutrition, and well-being. De Palo also serves as a member of the senior management team.
Prior to arriving at Columbia, De Palo was the managing director of The Focus Room, a qualitative research provider in New York City, from 2008 to 2011.
De Palo has an extensive background in intercollegiate athletics, having served as an assistant women's basketball coach at Iona College from 2006 to 2008 and as a women's basketball graduate assistant coach at Lehigh University from 2005 to 2006. She was also a team captain and Patriot League Player of the Year for the Lehigh University women's basketball team and is a member of the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame.
De Palo graduated from Lehigh University in 2005 with a degree in Marketing and earned a master’s degree in Elementary Education in 2006. In 2018, she completed a master’s degree in Psychology in Education with a concentration in Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in the Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2022, she completed a Fulbright-EDUFI Fellowship in Jyväskylä, Finland. De Palo earned her Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Interdisciplinary Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2025. Her research focused on measuring career adaptability resources and examining the relationships between career adaptability and career construction, self-esteem, resilience, and sport burnout among NCAA Division I student-athletes. She also explored the relationship between career adaptability and academic performance.
A Highlands, New Jersey, native, De Palo helped anchor one of the greatest seasons in girls’ basketball history in the area, with the Red Bank Catholic Caseys going 31-0 in 2000. She is currently in the Red Bank Catholic Hall of Fame.
