AP FILE PHOTO Brittni Donaldson of the Toronto Raptors looks on during practice at OVO Atletic Centre on Oct. 22, 2019, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

ATLANTA — Northern Iowa women’s basketball alum Brittni Donaldson has been hired as an assistant coach with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.

Donaldson, a four-year Panther veteran known for her 3-point shooting, becomes the first female coach in the 76-year history of the franchise.

The Sioux City native was a two-year starting guard for the Panthers and played in four Women’s National Invitational Tournaments for UNI. Donaldson played in 114 games in a Panther uniform and still holds the program’s single-game record for 3-pointers made with eight.

Having taken an unorthodox path to coaching in the NBA, Donaldson is just one of 15 women to have served as a full-time assistant coach in the over 70-year history of the NBA. After knee injuries prevented Donaldson from a professional career as a player, the skills obtained as a student at UNI combined with her passion for sports set the table for a successful career.

Following her graduation from UNI in 2015 with a degree in statistics and actuarial science, Donaldson worked for CBE Companies in Cedar Falls analyzing internal data. After a stint as an analyst with STATS LLC in Chicago, Donaldson moved to Canada and teamed up with another former Panther in Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who was recently named head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Joining Toronto as a data analyst in 2017, Donaldson was part of the Raptors staff that helped deliver the franchise’s first NBA championship in 2019. In addition to coaching the Raptors’ NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas, she spent her final two years with the Raptors organization as an assistant coach under Nurse, as well as an assistant for Toronto’s NBA G-League team.

In 2021, Donaldson co-founded her own sports analytics company in Strata Athletics, which aims to enhance transferable life skills and keep young athletes engaged in sports longer. She serves as the company’s chief executive officer.

Following a brief stay as an assistant coach and director of coaching development with the Hamilton Honey Badgers in the Canadian Elite Basketball League, Donaldson returned to the NBA this past season with the Detroit Pistons as an assistant coach and the director of coaching analytics under head coach Dwayne Casey.