Gia Doonan

Biography

Gia Doonan enters her fifth season with the Longhorns and her second as Associate Head Coach in 2025-26. Doonan was first hired as a volunteer assistant coach with the program in 2021 and then promoted to a full-time assistant coaching role in 2022. She was promoted to Associate Head Coach in Aug., 2024. Doonan has helped guide Texas to dominance during her span on staff, including three national titles over the last four years and three Big 12 Championships. Under her tutelage, the Fours have captured back-to-back national championships in 2023-24. In addition to her responsibilities on the Forty Acres, Doonan coached the USA U-23 Women's Eigth to a silver medal at the U-23 World Championships in 2025. The Rochester, Mass., native rowed four seasons with the Longhorns (2013-17) and is a former a member of the USRowing senior national team. She helped Team USA to a fourth-place finish with the eight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. As a student-athlete at Texas, Doonan was a two-time Big 12 Rower of the Year (2015, 2017), three-time CRCA All-American (2015-17) and a four-time All-Big 12 First Team selection (2014-17). She won three Big 12 Championships (2015-17) and competed in three NCAA Championships in the first varsity eight with the Longhorns. With the national team in 2019, Doonan placed third in the eight at the World Rowing Championships, second in the eight at the World Rowing Cup II, and second in the four at the World Rowing Cup I. In 2018, won gold at the World Ch