Hamilton College

Jim Lister was named Hamilton's head men's and women's rowing coach in February 2019. He led both teams to new heights in just five seasons in Clinton. The women competed in the NCAA Division III championships twice and were the runners-up in the spring of 2021. The men finished fifth in the inaugural IRA Division III National Championship Regatta in 2022, and were ranked as high as fourth in Division III polls that spring.

In 2023 the men were ranked as high as eighth and the women ninth under Lister. More than 30 student-athletes on his teams made the 2023 NESCAC Spring All-Academic Team.

Lister was selected the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Division III Coach of the Year and was part of the Division III Coaching Staff of the Year after the women finished second in the 2021 NCAA championships. He coached five all-Americans, including the first one in men's team history, and 15 all-NESCAC team selections. Lister was also voted the 2021 NESCAC Women's Rowing Coach of the Year.

Lister had been an assistant women's rowing coach at Syracuse University since 2013 and served as the international recruiting coordinator and director of boathouse operations. He helped the Orange qualify for the NCAA Division I championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Under his guidance, Syracuse's second varsity 8+ finished in 11th place in each of the last two national championships. He coached the second varsity 8+ to the Atlantic Coast Conference title and Boat of the Year honors in 2017. He helped the program climb from 21st to 13th in the season's final Division I coaches poll within three years.

Lister was the recruiting coordinator for Duke University women's rowing from 2003 until 2013 and was appointed the program's associate head coach in 2012. He helped Duke capture the All-Points Trophy at the Head of the Hooch (held on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga) twice, and he coached the varsity 4+ to defeat the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia for the first time in program history. He was selected the 2012 Regional Assisant Coach of the Year for the South Region by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association.

Lister has also served as an assistant coach with the Cornell University men's heavyweight program during the 2002-03 season, the Wellesley College women's novice coach during the 2001-02 season, head coach of the Saratoga Rowing Association from 1997 to 2000, head men's and women's coach at University at Albany during the 1996-97 season, and assistant men's and women's coach at Skidmore College from 1993 to 1996.

Lister also has coaching experience with a U.S. U23 pre-elite development camp, and he guided a women's pair and four to the gold medal at the Canadian Henley in 2014. He has managed the U.S. team at the U23 world championships in Brandenberg, Germany, and Prague, Czech Republic.

Lister earned his bachelor's degree from the University at Albany and has his master's in exercise science and coaching from Skidmore. He and his wife Meg have two children.