SPRINGFIELD -- Missouri State Director of Athletics Patrick Ransdell announced today the addition of Kelsey Tolbert and Joe Tolbert to his staff. Both new Bears will begin their official duties on Feb. 18.

Kelsey Tolbert is Missouri State's new Associate Director of Athletics for External Operations, a newly-created position that will oversee fan engagement and all areas within athletics that touch Missouri State's growing base of supporters and contributors. Joe Tolbert will assume the role of Equipment Manager and handle inventory, purchasing and quality control for Bears gear, uniforms and competition supplies.

"We are extremely excited to have Kelsey and Joe joining our staff at Missouri State," said Ransdell. "They have both been successful at every stop in their careers and will make an immediate contribution to our efforts at Missouri State as we transition to a new conference and continue raising our athletics profile."

The husband-and-wife team have been employed at Appalachian State University for the past three years. They have a daughter, Payton, and a son, Ollie.


Kelsey Tolbert
Before joining Missouri State's staff, Kelsey Tolbert spent the previous three years at App State in Boone, N.C., where she most-recently served as Associate Athletics Director for Marketing from 2024 to 2025. She joined the App State Athletics staff in April 2022 as Assistant AD for Marketing.
 
She spent three years as the Director of Marketing at Kennesaw State University from 2019-22, overseeing all marketing and promotional campaigns and game entertainment. She shouldered initiatives to increase awareness and attendance, engage students and enhance fan experience. She was the primary marketing contact for the football, men's basketball and baseball programs and served as program administrator for the Owls Spirit Squads. During her tenure, the Owls set total and student attendance records during the 2019 and 2021 seasons. 
  
She also has previous experience at Northwestern (La.) State University (2017-19) where she served was the Ticketing and Marketing graduate assistant, and as the Director of Community Relations for the Schaumburg (Ill.) Boomers (2015-17) Frontier League baseball team. She also interned in the ticketing department at the University of Alabama as an outbound sales associate.
 
She holds a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from the University of Alabama (2015) and a master's in Sports Administration from Northwestern State (2019). 


Joe Tolbert
Joe comes to Missouri State after serving three years as the Assistant Equipment Manager for Olympic Sports at App State from April of 2022 until coming to Springfield in 2025.

He previously served as head Football Equipment Manager at Kennesaw State, where he was responsible for organizing the maintenance of all football equipment, including protective equipment, uniforms, and apparel for Owls football.
 
Prior to Kennesaw State, Tolbert spent two seasons as the Director of Equipment at Northwestern State (2017-19), two years as a volunteer Equipment Manager at South Alabama (2015-17), and one season as the Athletic Equipment intern at Towson (2014-15).
 
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Leisure Studies and Recreation Administration from the University of South Alabama in 2014 and is certified through the Athletic Equipment Managers Association (AEMA).


All hires are contingent upon final approval by the Missouri State University Board of Governors at its next scheduled meeting.