Bio

Kniffin began his tenure with CMS on August 20, 2018 and is entering his sixth year in 2023-24. A former Claremont native, Kniffin served on the communications staff at Pomona College for four years from 2011-2015, where he became the first full-time sports information director for Pomona-Pitzer Athletics. He was in charge of the promotion and publicity of all 21 varsity sports programs and launched the department's social media accounts during his tenure.

Prior to joining CMS Athletics, Kniffin spent the previous three years working in the athletic communications staff at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, serving as the primary contact for the women's volleyball, men's basketball and men's lacrosse programs, while also assisting with the supervision of three graduate assistants. He was promoted to an assistant athletic director position in 2018.

Kniffin had 13 years of experience at the NCAA Division I level before accepting the Pomona-Pitzer position, including 11 at Hofstra University on Long Island, where he handled sports information duties for men's and women's soccer, men's basketball and softball. His publicity efforts resulted in numerous national media stories, including a back-page feature in The Sporting News on the success of the Hofstra softball program. He also worked for two years at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he was the contact for men's and women's soccer, women's basketball, and men's lacrosse.

Kniffin got his start in the sports information industry as an Asa S. Bushnell Intern at the Eastern College Athletic Conference in 1993-94, before becoming the sports information director at Division II LIU-C.W. Post on Long Island, where he worked for four years. While at LIU Post, he also worked in the media relations venues at the Goodwill Games and the U.S. Open Golf Championship, when both were held on Long Island.

A 1992 graduate of Colgate University, Kniffin majored in economics and minored in philosophy, while serving as a student assistant in the sports information office and sports editor of the student newspaper.