Shepherd University head women’s basketball coach Melanie Ford announced Thursday, July 28 that Julie Kaufman has been named assistant coach for the Rams. Kaufman replaces Antoinette “Toni” West, who resigned to take a similar position with Dominican University of California.

Kaufman comes to Shepherd after spending the last three years as a women’s basketball assistant at Hood College.

Kaufman earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education from Catawba College in 2005. She gained a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Hood in 2011.

Kaufman was a four-year player at Catawba and was on a pair of conference champion teams.

Prior to coaching at Hood, Kaufman served as an assistant basketball and track and field coach at SouthernGuilford High School (N.C.). She also had coaching stints as assistant basketball and track and field coach at Damascus High School (Md.), head junior varsity volleyball coach at Winston Churchill High School (Md.), and assistant volleyball coach at Salisbury Academy (N.C.).