Hockey East announced Tuesday that Dr. Derek Zuckerman has been named supervisor of women’s officials.
In his role, Zuckerman will oversee all aspects of the officiating program of the women’s league, including the recruitment and assignment of all game officials. He began his duties with Hockey East in July.
Zuckerman has enjoyed an illustrious career as an NCAA on-ice official over the past 20 years, including the honor of refereeing the women’s national championship four times (2009, 2010, 2016, 2021) to go along with six Frozen Four assignments. Over the past 17 seasons, he has worked both Hockey East and ECAC Hockey contests, earning postseason assignments in each of those seasons. He also served on the NCAA Rules Committee as the women’s referee representative in 2019.
He started as an ECAC Hockey Division III official in 1995 before joining ECAC Hockey’s men’s league for seven seasons from 1998 to 2005. He began refereeing ECAC Hockey’s women’s league in 2004 and rose to Hockey East women’s league in 2010. With the ECAC, he worked the women’s championship game five times (2006, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2020) and nine semifinal contests. He served as an official in the Hockey East women’s semifinals in 2011 and 2012.
Prior to his career as an NCAA official, Zuckerman was invited to join USA Hockey’s national training staff for officials in 1995, earning the inaugural Milt Kaufman Award, given to the outstanding USA Hockey officiating camp attendee. Since then, he has served in various roles within USA Hockey’s officiating program, including as an instructor for officials’ development and training camps.
In 2021, New York-native participated in USA Hockey’s Advanced Officiating Symposium in Providence, where he established relationships with a wide pool of officials from across the country. Additionally, Zuckerman has served as the assistant commissioner of both the Bay State and Hockomock Conferences, high school leagues in Massachusetts from 1996 to 1998.
Internationally, Zuckerman has worked in both the United Kingdom and Mexico in various roles, including serving as an instructor and official at the Mexican National Hockey Championship.
Outside of Hockey, Zuckerman serves as the associate VP for student life and dean of students at Roger Williams University. In this role, he oversees the offices of Residence Life, Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, and Student Programs, Leadership, and Orientation. Prior to this appointment, he worked at Union as a class dean, helping students navigate their experience with shared responsibilities between student and academic affairs. Before that, Zuckerman served Holy Cross as the associate dean for student life. He has also worked at Iona, Quinnipiac and Bentley over his career in student affairs.
Zuckerman graduated from Le Moyne College in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial relations and human resource management. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Bentley in 1998 and a doctorate in educational leadership from Fordham University in 2010. He has been an adjunct professor of marketing and general business courses and has presented nationally on various topics including financial management, negotiation, safety, and learning outcomes.
