Keli Zinn, a collegiate athletics leader with over 20 years of power conference experience and a proven track record of transforming championship-level programs, enters her first season as Rutgers Athletic Director.
Zinn arrives ‘On the Banks,’ following her stint as the executive deputy athletic director and chief operating officer at Louisiana State University. Zinn oversaw all external and internal affairs of the athletics department, working closely with University leadership, senior athletics administration and campus and community partners. Her work included supervision of all 21 varsity programs with direct oversight of football and gymnastics, revenue generation, capital projects and strategic initiatives.
Zinn was instrumental in advancing LSU's Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) strategy, forging a partnership to produce The Money Game, a documentary series following Tigers student-athletes, which launched on Amazon Prime Video. Her innovative approach secured NIL agreements and fundraising growth across multiple sports, positioning LSU as a national NIL leader.
Zinn helped drive a significant growth in revenue, renegotiating the Tigers’ multimedia rights partnerships, securing a 21 percent increase in value. She was instrumental in boosting ticket sales, merchandise revenue and donor support during her time at LSU. In 2024, football surpassed its highest number of season tickets since 2017, with a total of 71,250 tickets sold.
At LSU, Zinn helped lead the Tigers to unprecedented success: four national championships (gymnastics, women's basketball, and baseball twice), three SEC titles including women's track and field and women's gymnastics, and a top-10 finish in the Director's Cup for the first time since 2008-09.
The football program completed one of the biggest turnarounds in college football during Zinn’s first season in Baton Rouge in 2022, posting a 10-win regular season and the SEC Western Division title before winning the Citrus Bowl. In her three years with the Tigers, football won 29 games, with a 3-0 record in bowl games, and celebrated numerous first round NFL Draft picks, including 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, Jayden Daniels.
Prior to her time at LSU, Zinn spent 12 seasons at her alma mater West Virginia. While there, she served as deputy athletics director and chief operating officer of the department from 2016-2022. A native of Petersburg, West Viriginia, Zinn was appointed the school’s interim Director of Athletics, becoming the first woman to lead the department.
Zinn joined WVU in 2010 as associate athletic director for compliance and governance and in 2014, was elevated to executive senior associate athletics director. In her oversight of the day-to-day operations, Zinn helped guide the athletic department through its transition into the Big 12 in 2012.
In Nov. 2021, 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.
A 2020 inductee into the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Hall of Fame, Zinn has twice received national recognition from the
Sports Business Journal, being name to their Forty Under 40 honors in 2019, and selected as one of SBJ’s Game Changers in 2016.
She earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in sport management from West Virginia University.
Zinn began her career in collegiate athletics, serving as a compliance assistant with the Big East (2003-2004) before joining the University of Maryland as an assistant athletics director for compliance (2005-2010).
Zinn and her husband, Nathaniel, married in 2017.
