Bridget Niland, Williamsville South High School, Class of 1990  (Inducted 2017)

Bridget Niland is the Director of Athletics and Associate Professor of Business Administration at Daemen College. A member of the Daemen faculty since 2006, Bridget oversees Daemen Athletics and the College’s Business Sport Management program and Business Law degree programs. Before joining the Daemen faculty, Bridget worked at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana where she still serves as a consultant on Division I Membership issues. Bridget joined the NCAA after working as a trial attorney with United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., which followed a two-year federal clerkship with the Honorable John T. Curtin in the Western District of New York.

As a student at Williamsville South, Ms. Niland was a record-setting track athlete. Following high school, she earned a bachelor’s degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo where she was a four-year varsity scholarship athlete in the sports of cross country and track and field. Ms. Niland continued her education at UB earning a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the Graduate School of Education and a law degree from the SUNY Buffalo School of Law. She is in the final stages of completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy through UB’s Graduate School of Education.

She was inducted into UB’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002, named to the Buffalo Business First’s 40 Under 40 in 1996, and Power 100 Women of Buffalo in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2016, she was awarded the Buffalo Niagara Partnerships Athena Young Professional Award. Ms. Niland was a long-time member of Independent Health YMCA Board of Directors and currently serves on the boards of the Miracle League of WNY, Western New York Girls in Sport, Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and Visit Buffalo Niagara. Recently, she was named chairperson of the Buffalo Niagara Sports Commission and was placed on the NCAA Division II Infractions Appeals Committee.

Bridget and her husband Brian Gwitt reside in Snyder, NY with their children Sebastian, Gretchen, Isaac, Samuel, and Ellen.