GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Head Women’s Basketball Coach Tammi Reiss announced today that the team has hired former Penn State Chief of Staff Pam Brown as the Gators’ chief of staff. Brown brings an incredibly diverse group of skills to Gainesville having served the game as a player, an assistant coach, a director of basketball operations, and a chief of staff during her exemplary career.
“I am so thrilled to welcome Pam to our Gator’s Women’s Basketball family,” said Reiss. “She brings years of experience and versatility having worked with some of the best head coaches in the business, and I have never gotten more praise and recommendations for a candidate.
“Pam brings the qualities to the chief of staff position that I hold most valuable — efficiency, organization, creativity and proactiveness. She has also been a coach herself, so she understands the needs of our staff, and implements operations and systems that make our lives easier and enables us to function at the highest level. Pam is going to make an immediate impact on our ability to build Florida Women’s Basketball and compete at the highest level.”
“I am honored to join the women’s basketball program at the University of Florida alongside Coach Tammi Reiss,” said Brown. “Florida represents excellence at the highest level of collegiate athletics, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to help support the vision Coach Reiss has for this program.”
“Coach Reiss has built a reputation for competitive excellence, authenticity, and elite player development. I’m incredibly grateful for the trust she has placed in me, and excited to work alongside our staff and student-athletes to create an environment where our program can thrive and operate at an elite level every single day.”
Prior to joining the Gators, Brown served on Carolyn Krieger’s staff at Penn State for seven seasons, most recently as the chief of staff, but also as a director of basketball operations and assistant coach. In 2023-24, she helped guide the Lady Lions to the program’s first national ranking in nine seasons, the team’s most victories (22) since the 2013-14 campaign, and a trip to the WBIT Final Four.
In 2024-25, Brown mentored Gracie Merkle, a three-time Big Ten Weekly Honor Roll member and All-Big Ten Honorable Mention recipient who produced 23 double-figure scoring outings including 15 point-rebound double-doubles.
Brown ventured to Penn State after spending the previous four years as the director of basketball operations at Marquette. As the team’s DOBO, Brown also served as the scouting coordinator, video coordinator liaison, statistical analyst, camp director and equipment coordinator and liaison, while organizing team shooting and practice schedules.
Before she made her way to Marquette, Brown was an assistant coach at Stetson where she helped lead the Hatters to the two highest win totals in program history at the time (24-9 in 2012-13, 27-8 in 2012-13), and a berth in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. Working primarily with the post players, Brown mentored Amber Porter to Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Year and first-team all-conference honors as Porter led the league in field goal percentage as a freshman.
Brown’s first coaching stops were at Miami (2007-09) as the program’s coordinator of basketball operations, Winthrop (2009-11) as an assistant coach, and North Texas (2011-12) as a graduate assistant where she pursued her Master’s Degree in recreation and leisure studies.
The Coppell, Texas native enjoyed a four-year career with the Charlotte 49ers basketball team where she was a two-year starter and an All-Atlantic 10 performer. Averaging better than 10 points per game in all four seasons, Brown finished her career with 1,443 points, 627 rebounds, and 114 assists. She was named to the first-team All-Atlantic 10 squad as a senior following a year in which she averaged 12.9 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the floor.
During her tenure at Charlotte, she helped guide the 49ers to two league titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003. The program also made three-straight WNIT appearances from 2004-06.
A member of the Dean’s List, Brown graduated from Charlotte in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics.
In 2006-07, Brown played for the Celeritudo Tigers in Groningen, Holland, where she averaged 17.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. She shot 56 percent from the field, ranked third in the league in blocks, and was named to the league’s all-star team.
