Keli Zinn believes she is right where she is supposed to be.
And, though, she worked hard to get there, she said she’s also a “big believer in destiny.”
Zinn, 39, a Petersburg native, is WVU’s deputy director of athletics and was recently named to the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 for 2019.
WVU Athletic Director Shane Lyons nominated Zinn, but she was surprised to learn she’d made the list.
“You don’t get this type of recognition without someone putting your name forward,” Zinn said. “I know he thinks a lot of me. He’s been exceptional for my career.”
To Lyons’ mind, Zinn deserves the accolades.
“Keli is my right hand. I’ve said it 1,000 times that I cannot do my job without her assistance,” Lyons said. “Keli is in the trenches daily, helping us to run this department. Her leadership and work ethic are vital to our overall success. I have great trust and admiration for her, and this award is quite deserving. Not only am I happy for her, I am quite proud of her.”
Zinn likens her job to a CEO, handling the day-to-day duties of an athletic department employing 213.
“We have a senior staff of 10 who have oversight of various areas,” she said. “The goal for me, in my role, is a lot of day-to-day administrative expectations to allow Shane to be at the head of the department.
“My job is to determine what I handle and take care of and what Shane needs to be aware of.”
Zinn also serves as the administrator to the football program.
A graduate of Petersburg High School, Zinn has been into sports since she was a young girl.
“I started sports as far back as I can remember,” she said. “I played baseball with the boys because there were no girls’ teams.”
In high school, she played basketball, tennis and volleyball. She came to WVU and walked onto the tennis team, but quickly realized college sports were not for her — at least as a participant.
“I decided to put my time and energy elsewhere,” she said. “I struggled to figure out what that looked like for me.”
She thought about studying political science or psychology, but her passion for athletics kept her connected to the sports world.
That’s how she found her way to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management. Initially, she thought she’d move on to law school and eventually become a sports agent.
But fate had other plans. She volunteered in the university’s compliance office as a student. When she graduated, she got a job with the Big East office in Rhode Island. That’s when WVU was still in the Big East conference.
“When I left Morgantown in 2003 to take the job with the Big East, I wanted to do the best job wherever God planted me,” Zinn said.
In the conference office, she could watch administrators from all the schools, taking what she thought was good and discarding the rest.
“That’s an awareness and knowledge I carried with me,” she said.
From the Big East, she took a job in compliance with the University of Maryland.
In 2010, then-WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck was looking for someone to head up his compliance department. He asked for suggestions from the Big East and Zinn was recommended.
Again, Zinn, said, everything fell into place.
“I was ready to move out of compliance,” she said. “It’s an important job, but it’s tough because you are the person who is enforcing the rules and the person saying no. That can really wear on you.”
Luck promised there would be opportunities for her to get out of compliance and grow her career, so she made the move.
“I never expected eight years later to be in a position that life is coming together,” she said. “I couldn’t be more happy. I feel blessed. It’s been a tremendous journey.”
The journey is not over and one day Zinn hopes to be an athletic director at a Power 5 university.
“I don’t know where that will be or when,” she said. “I do know there are certain places I don’t want to work.
“If a decade from now, that doesn’t come to fruition, I suspect I’ll still be happy where I’m at.”
Zinn acknowledged it’s unusual for women to be in these positions, especially at Power 5 schools, but it’s not impossible. And, she knows there is nothing a man can do that she can’t.
“I tell young women and girls coming up through the system, ‘you can focus on the numbers or focus on those who are there and say I can achieve that, too.’”
WVU President Gordon Gee also thinks highly of Zinn. In 2014, he named her interim athletic director and was impressed with the way she held Luck’s position and was part of the group to find Lyons.
“I think the world of her,” Gee said. “She really is one of the brightest young stars in academics in this country.
“She knows athletics back and forth. She’s tough and kind at the same time.”
Zinn credits Luck, Lyons and Gee with having faith in her and letting her prove her worth.
And, she credits another man with always having her back. That’s her husband, Nathaniel, a Clarksburg native who is an assistant AD of
marketing.
She called him an “amazing man” who supports her.
