Karina Vital entered her first year at SMU in August 2024 as the Director of Fan Experience.
Prior to arriving on the Hilltop, Vital spent the past three years at the University of Connecticut on the Marketing and Digital Media team. First as a Marketing Intern and later as a Marketing Coordinator, Vital served as the game director and producer for Football as well as the primary marketing contact for Men’s Soccer, Men’s Hockey, Women’s Hockey, Baseball, Rowing, and Tennis.
She also served as the secondary marketing contact for the two-time national champion Men’s Basketball team assisting with all gameday activations and grassroots marketing efforts. In addition, Vital served as the secondary contact on digital and email marketing efforts as well as oversaw the training and development of the student intern and gameday assistant program. Vital was part of the team that won PacNet Star of Year for 2025.
While at UConn, she attained the highest average attendance in NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer in the 2021 season, placing in the top five during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In addition, Vital set an attendance record for Men’s Hockey, surpassing the previous record by over 1,000 fans, and increased attendance at the off-campus venue by 54% from the previous year. She also set two attendance records for the UConn Baseball program in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
During her time in graduate school, Vital spent time as a Property Assistant with Learfield and UConn Sports Properties, an intern with Wasserman on the Brands and Properties team, and an intern with the Arizona Host Committee for Super Bowl LVII.
Vital spent the 2019-21 seasons as a Marketing Intern at North Carolina State University. During her time in Raleigh, she served as the primary marketing contact for Women’s Tennis and Men’s Soccer and the secondary contact on Football, Men’s Basketball, and Women’s Basketball. In addition, she spearheaded grassroots marketing efforts amongst the student population and oversaw the database management systems.
Vital graduated from North Carolina State University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a concentration in Marketing, along with a minor in Data Analytics. She also received a Master of Science in Sport Management from the University of Connecticut in 2023.
A native of Queens, New York, she now resides in Dallas.
