McManus has been the Center’s director since 2018, where she engages with students, brings in industry experts and is setting the agenda to help Marist prepare students to be leaders in sports journalism and communications.

McManus is also a sports columnist for the New York Daily News. Before that, she spend nearly 10 years at ESPN, covering the NFL and as a columnist for espnW. She hosted two radio shows, including The Trifecta with Kate Fagan and Sarah Spain, and was a frequent analyst for SportsCenter, The Sports Reporters, and Outside the Lines among other ESPN shows. Prior to that, McManus covered everything from high schools to the US Open for The Journal News in Westchester, NY, and her work has appeared in Newsday, The New York Times, USA Today and other outlets. She has appeared as a guest on Good Morning America, CNN and NPR’s Morning Edition.

McManus grew up in southern Virginia until she was 11 and then moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where she graduated from Lincoln High School. She received a BA in the Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis Md. and a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she taught sports journalism for over a decade.

While she was covering the New York Jets for ESPN, McManus played roller derby for seven years as Lesley E. Visserate.

After a two-year sojourn in London, which included an episode of House Hunters International, McManus, her husband and two daughters will resettle back in Westchester County.