The Ivy Influence: Kim Selmore

DID YOU KNOW? Kim Selmore helped found the Dartmouth women’s golf team by the time she graduated in 1983 and is believed to be the first African-American woman to play golf in the Ivy League.

Selmore did not know what to expect when she moved from St. Augustine, Fla., to Hanover, N.H., to attend Dartmouth in 1979. During that time, some things did not change no matter where you were, and Selmore dealt with the same racism in New Hampshire that she experienced in Florida. But after being noticed on the basketball court, Selmore found a home with the women’s basketball team. The time she spent with the Big Green helped hone the skills she uses now as a federal prosecutor in Florida.

Selmore was an accomplished athlete at St. Augustine High School and received a softball scholarship from Florida State. But her father, who was in the Air Force and stationed in Massachusetts, wanted his daughter to attend Dartmouth, so off she went.

Selmore found Hanover, N.H., to be cold and unwelcoming at first. But while playing on the clay courts near the gym, some of the Dartmouth basketball players walked by, including Gail Koziara Boudreaux and Corrine Hayes. Thanks to that chance encounter as well as the approval of then and current head coach Chris Wielgus, Selmore walked on to the basketball team.

From that moment, Dartmouth ran the other Ivy League teams off the court. The Big Green went 29-3 in League play during Selmore’s four seasons and won the title each year. Selmore earned All-Ivy honorable mention twice and finished her career with 247 assists, currently 10th in Dartmouth history.

Selmore never lost her love of golf, and before she graduated she found the Dartmouth women’s golf team. She is believed to be the Ivy League’s first African-American women’s golfer.

The success Selmore and her team achieved on the court translated into a better educational experience for the St. Augustine, Fla., native. She did not want to be in a position where she could not play the game she loved, so she applied herself even more to her studies. Selmore graduated in 1983 with a degree in Government and went on to the University of Virginia law school.

After getting her law degree in 1986, Selmore has worked for a large firm and a bank for five years before joining the U.S. Department of Justice in 1991. She worked under Janet Reno as an Assistant United States Attorney, prosecuting economic crime and complex frauds, and then accepted the same position as a federal prosecutor in Miami-Dade County.

In 2008, Selmore received the LEO Prosecutor of the Year Award for Miami-Dade County. She continues to try cases for the United States Justice Department in Florida the same way she played on the hardwood at Dartmouth, with hard work, toughness, confidence and intelligence. No matter what she does, success has followed Selmore wherever she goes.