FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 7, 2025) – The Northern Arizona University athletic department will introduce the 13
th head women's basketball coach in program history,
Laura Dinkins, via an introductory press conference on Wednesday, April 9 at 1 p.m. Mountain Standard time.
The press conference is open to the public and will take place in the Parsons Family Auditorium inside the Student-Athlete High Performance Center on NAU's campus. It will also be streamed for free on nauathletics.com/watch.
Remarks will be made by Northern Arizona President, Dr. José Luis Cruz Rivera, interim Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics / Deputy Athletic Director
Uri Farkas, and Dinkins.
For media that wish to attend, please email Associate Athletic Director for Communications, Monica Cowbrough, at
monica.jaenicke@nau.edu for additional details.
Dinkins' hiring was announced on Tuesday, April 1. She brings 15 seasons of Division I experience with her to Flagstaff, most recently at Grand Canyon University where she spent two seasons as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator under Molly Miller. At GCU, she helped lead the Lopes to a 56-10 (.848) record, including consecutive 24-plus win seasons.
She is no stranger to Northern Arizona, as she was a member of the women's basketball team from 2003-08 and played on NAU's lone NCAA tournament team under Laurie Kelly. Dinkins was the Big Sky's Defensive Player of the Year in 2006-07 and was named to the All-Big Sky second team in 2007-08.
She replaces Loree Payne who departed for the same role at Santa Clara after eight seasons at Northern Arizona.
To read more about Dinkins, click
here.
