Kristen Brownlee Wilhelm ’14, a former Yale coxswain who spent the five seasons on the coaching staff at Indiana, joined Will Porter’s staff as an assistant coach in July of 2021.
In her debut season, she guided the third varsity eight to an Ivy League championship. The 3V8 went on to earn a silver medal in 2023, a bronze in 2024, and reclaimed gold in 2025.
At Indiana, Wilhelm, who was promoted to Associate Head Coach in 2020, served as the recruiting coordinator and helped turn IU into a national contender. During her tenure, the Hoosiers made four NCAA Championship appearances. In 2019, she guided the second varsity eight to an 11th place finish at NCAA’s and third place at the Big Ten Championship. In 2018, her varsity four crew finished 10th at NCAA’s.
Wilhelm, a native of Tampa, Florida, spent the 2015-16 season as an intern assistant coach at the University of Washington where she coached the third varsity eight for the men’s rowing program. She helped guide them to an undefeated regular season, a PAC-12 Championship and a third-place finish at IRA’s. In addition, she led coxswain coaching for the Huskies.
In 2015, she completed her work towards an Advanced Certificate in Rowing Leadership at the Institute for Rowing Leadership at Community Rowing Inc., in Boston while volunteering as a coach for the Harvard lightweight program.
Wilhelm earned her degree at Yale in architecture while also serving as a coxswain for four years. Over the course of her career, she won three silver medals and one bronze medal at the Ivy League Championships and raced in both the first and second varsity eights at the NCAA Championships. In addition, she coxed the Bulldogs to the semifinals at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. Individually, she earned All-New England first team and All-Ivy League second team accolades and was named a 2012 CRCA Scholar-Athlete.
Before attending Yale, Wilhelm was active with USRowing National Team at various levels. She was selected for the 2009 Junior National High Performance Team in Berlin, Germany.
