Old Dominion University President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., and Director of Athletics Wood Selig named Jena Virga executive director of the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation (ODAF).
Virga, who joined ODAF in 2010, was appointed senior associate athletic director for development to oversee the daily athletic development efforts at ODU in 2014. In the summer of 2021, she was promoted to executive senior associate athletic director for development, a role in which she will continue to serve.
Working closely with the ODAF Board throughout her tenure, Virga has successfully recruited 14 new ODAF trustees. Additionally, for more than a decade, she has helped lead the organization to more than $120 million in philanthropic success, personally securing over $17 million of that record total.
Virga has led the recent athletic fundraising initiative, starting in July 2016, that has generated almost $60 million, 147% of the initial athletics fundraising goal. That funding has supported major capital projects, such as the $72 million renovation of S.B. Ballard Stadium, the entirely privately funded $9 million Mitchum Family Basketball Performance Center, the $1 million Paul Keyes Baseball Hitting Complex and the start-up of the ODU women's volleyball program.
In an expanded role as ODAF's executive director, she will be the leading force for all future philanthropic efforts pertaining to ODU athletic facility capital projects, individual programmatic enhancement support, endowment and planned giving efforts, and annual scholarship funding.
