Keli Zinn is responsible for assisting the Director of Athletics with the overall administration of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. She provides strategic direction and operations management to a department that includes 18 intercollegiate programs, 250 coaches and staff and a budget exceeding $93 million annually. As the department's primary liaison to the University's central administration, she works closely with WVU's general counsel, strategic initiatives, finance and human resources. Zinn serves as the administrator to WVU's football program with oversight to the daily operations, including but not limited to, finances, capital projects and infrastructure, contract negotiations, game day and postseason administration.
Zinn represents the University as Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) on Big 12 Conference and NCAA Governance groups.
In December of 2014, President E. Gordon Gee appointed Zinn the school’s interim Director of Athletics as she became the first female to lead the University’s athletic department. She served in that capacity until February, 2015.
A native of Petersburg, West Virginia, Zinn came to West Virginia in 2010 as Associate Athletic Director for Governance and Compliance from the University of Maryland, where she joined the compliance staff in 2004 as Compliance Coordinator and was named Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance in 2005. While at Maryland, Zinn worked in the day-to-day operations to ensure compliance for the athletic department and more than 700 student-athletes in 27 varsity sports programs. She served as the sport administrator for women’s tennis and competitive cheer providing oversight in budget planning, personnel and facility operations.
Previously, Zinn served as Compliance Assistant at the BIG EAST Conference, where she assisted in the review of institutional compliance audits and processing of all conference and NCAA waivers and violations. She worked with conference staff to coordinate events and served as oversight to the student-athlete advisory committee.
Zinn has been involved in numerous national, conference and University committees over the years, including the NCAA Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement (Chair), NCAA Division I Legislative Committee, National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) Education Committee, the NAAC Reasonable Standards Committee, the NAAC Professional Development Committee, the Atlantic Coast Conference Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, the BIG EAST Conference Sport and Championship Committee for Men’s and Women’s Tennis, Big 12 Bylaw Committee, the WVU Office of the President’s Social Justice Committee and the WVU College of Physical Activity and Social Sciences Advisory Committee. She is currently serving at the conference level as the Big 12 liaison for Gymnastics and Swimming & Diving. Regionally, Zinn serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In November 2022, Zinn was selected as West Virginia Executive Magazine’s cover recipient of the 2022 Young Guns Class, representing a generation of leaders who have accomplished great things through their careers in the business world and in their communities. In 2020, Zinn was inducted into the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences’ Hall of Fame. The Sports Business Journal named Zinn as a recipient of the prestigious Forty Under 40 Awards in 2019. She was honored as WVU’s Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences in 2018. Zinn was selected among the SportsBusiness Journal’s Game Changers in 2016.
Zinn is a graduate of West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in sport management. She and her husband, Nathaniel, reside in Morgantown.
