Kat Smith has served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Development and Ticket Sales and the Executive Director of the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation since May 2025. Prior to that she had been Associate Athletic Director and Executive Director of HAF since September 2022. She initially joined the WKU staff in 2021.
Smith oversees the day-to-day operations of the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation as well as the WKU Ticket Office. She is responsible for managing fundraising efforts and annual fund revenue, securing major gifts for capital projects and sport-specific enhancement funds, and selling premium seating tickets.
In addition to her responsibilities as Executive Director, Smith also serves as the sport supervisor for softball.
She was a softball letterwinner at WKU during the 2014-17 seasons and was named to the C-USA All-Tournament Team as a sophomore, finishing with a .409 batting average on the season. Smith is fifth in program history in career earned run average and fourth in season appearances.
The former Kat Downing is the granddaughter of Dero Downing, who played basketball at WKU for legendary head coach E.A. Diddle and later became president of WKU.
A two-time graduate of WKU, Smith earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in broadcasting in 2017 and a Master’s in Business Administration in 2023. Smith and her husband Matt are natives of Bowling Green and have two sons, Drew and Luke.
(Updated May 2025)
