Mesha Levister, was hired as the head men's and women's golf coach on September, 29, 2022 and enters her third season. She is the 3rd African American female to Coach Division I Men’s golf. Levister has stepped in and done a tremendous job of turning the Panther teams around since the departure of the previous head coach. In her first season she was named the Women’s SWAC Coach of the Year. The Women’s Golf team finished second in the 2023 SWAC Championship Tournament at the Refuge Golf Course.
Levister has a passion and love for the game of golf that goes beyond measure. She has been an avid golfer since the age of three. She played varsity basketball for three years and varsity golf all four years at Belleview (Florida) High School, being named to the all-county golf team four times and named Star Banner Golfer of the Year her junior and senior years. After Belleview High School, she moved on to Lake City Community College as the captain of the women's golf team. When the women's team at LCCC was discontinued, she needed a new school to play golf. She would transfer after her freshman year to North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Her first year at NCCU, she was earned the NCCU Men's Golf Team MVP award and was named CIAA Men's Golf Rookie of the Year. During that time, she was the only female to play on the men's team at any conference school. Levister kept playing golf at a high level after her time at NCCU ended. While living in Virginia, she won the 2004 Virginia Women's Amateur tournament. She was the first African American to win a women's state tournament in the history of the VSGA. That victory, alongside high finishes in several other tournaments, propelled her to become Virginia Women's Golfer of the Year the same year.
In 2006, Levister turned professional and became a member of the Professional Golf Association (PGA). She became a teacher of the game, as well as playing tournaments on the professional level. In 2010, she joined the LPGA Futures Tour (now Epson Tour). She spent three seasons touring the world competing alongside the best female golfers in world. On tour, she had multiple top-10 finishes and gained respect from some of the best golfers. She is still one of very few Black female golfers to play on that level. Levister left the tour in 2014 after the death of her father, but continued to teach and play golf. In 2014, she won the Middle Atlantic PGA Women's Championship and just seven months later, won the MAPGA Senior-Junior tournament.
Levister was announced as the assistant golf coach at NCCU in the fall of 2020, filling a position established through a Tara VanDerveer Fund for the Advancement of Women in Coaching grant from the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF). At NCCU, she helped build the first women’s golf program in school history. After 2 seasons at NCCU, Levister was named the Director of Golf at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO. She was the head coach for both the Men's and Women's team. She became the first African American female to lead both programs in MIAA history.
Levister is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has he Bachelors Degree in Behavioral and Social Science from North Carolina Central University.
