Kelly Gatwood started at Conference USA as an administrative intern in June of 2009 and was promoted to full-time as the Sports Services and Officiating Assistant in July of 2011. Gatwood is currently the Associate Commissioner for Sports Services as the sport administrator for softball and volleyball. Kelly oversees the sports services department and is the conference liaison for the Senior Woman Administrators.
Gatwood also held the position of Administrator for the Men's Basketball Officiating Consortium and Curtis Shaw, men's basketball officiating coordinator of the Big 12, CUSA, Missouri Valley Conference, Southland and Ohio Valley Conferences. In that role, she was responsible for reviewing game contracts, coordinating schedules, verification of all game assignments and working directly with athletic administrators and coaches from institutions from all five conferences in the consortium.
In August 2019, Gatwood was appointed to the NCAA Division I Softball Committee and served as the chair in her final year during the 2022-23 season. She also served a four year term on the NCAA Softball Rules Committee from 2016-2020.
Prior to starting her career with Conference USA, Kelly was a graduate assistant softball coach at Odessa College for one year, 2008-09, working with the pitchers and catchers. Odessa qualified for Nationals and finished 10th in the nation.
Gatwood is a native of Prosper, Texas and was inducted into her high school Hall of Honor in January 2022. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Management from the University of New Mexico in 2008. She played softball and was a pitcher at the University of Arkansas in 2004-05, Odessa College in 2005-06 and University of New Mexico in 2006-08. Kelly completed her Master's in Business Administration in December 2011 from the University of Texas at Permian Basin.
She currently resides in Lake Kiowa, Texas with her husband Zack and two young children, Hattie Jo and Cooper.