DeLaina brings a unique perspective to the Parker Executive Search team, having been a former volleyball student-athlete and Student Services professional at the Division I level. In her current role, her main responsibilities are to develop and execute detailed search strategies for full-cycle recruitment of national searches for leadership positions across all levels of higher education and collegiate athletics, to include setting a strategy for the recruitment of qualified individuals, researching and sourcing potential candidates, interviewing and presenting candidates for review, managing the committee and finalist interview processes, and ensuring clients reach closure with the preferred candidate.

DeLaina earned her bachelor’s degree in human communication from the University of Central Florida with a minor in Mass Communication. She competed as a four-year starter for the UCF Women’s Volleyball team and helped lead the team to its first American Athletic Conference Championship in 2014 and first bid to the NCAA tournament since 2003. During her career at UCF, she earned such accolades as Player of the Year, Female Scholar Athlete of the Year for the AAC, and 3x All-American Honorable Mention. DeLaina is also a 2022 inductee into UCF Volleyball’s Ring of Honor and 2023 inductee into UCF Athletics Hall of Fame.