Report: WVU Deputy AD/COO Keli Zinn Leaving for LSU

WVU Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Operating Officer Keli Zinn is expected to take the Executive Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Operating Officer job at LSU as reported by Pete Thamel.

She will become the No. 2 in LSU’s athletic department and replace Stephanie Rempe who left LSU to take the athletic director position at Nevada earlier this year.

Zinn has been with WVU since 2010, first starting as Associate Athletic Director for Governance and Compliance. She came to WVU after serving in the compliance office at Maryland from 2004-09. She also served as a compliance assistant at the Big East conference.

Zinn is a native of West Virginia, having grown up in Petersburg. She is a graduate of WVU with a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in sport management.

In 2020, Zinn was inducted into the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences’ Hall of Fame. She was previously honored as WVU’s Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences in 2018.

She’s a groundbreaker, as in December of 2014, President E. Gordon Gee appointed Zinn the school’s interim Director of Athletics. This made her the first female to lead the WVU’s athletic department and she served in that capacity until February, 2015 when the school hired Shane Lyons.

It is unknown when Zinn will officially leave WVU for LSU at this time.