Speaking April 11th was Joanne Renn Head of Athletics Virginia Wesleyan College.
- Selected as Virginia Wesleyan College’s first female Athletic Director in December 2007 and as the first female AD at a coeducational institution in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference
- 2014-15 marks her 20th year at VWC, where she oversees 19 intercollegiate sports programs and a staff of more than 54 coaches, administrators, and support personnel
- Maintains the success of the athletic program, which included three teams and six individuals advancing to NCAA Division III National Championship competition in the 2013-14 season
- VWC’s athletic program produced five All-Americans, one Academic All-American, two ODAC Scholar Athlete of the Year honorees, and four ODAC Player of the Year honorees, among numerous additional post-season awards, under her guidance in 2013-14
- Has held a variety of responsibilities, ranging from coaching to raising funds for the athletic department
- Served as the President of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference from 2012 through 2014; moved to Past President through 2016
- Instrumental in winning the NCAA’s bid for the 2004 and 2005 Division III national women’s basketball championship tournament, which were hosted by VWC
- Served as VWC’s tournament director for the 2013 NCAA Division III Field Hockey championships
- Current member of the NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Committee and former member of the NCAA Nominating Committee
- Appointed to the Board of Directors of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, effective December 2013 for a four-year term
- Serves on the Hampton Roads Hall of Fame Committee and the Virginia Beach Sports Grant Committee
- Fomer member of the board of the Hampton Roads Sports Facility Authority
- Began her career at VWC as the head women’s tennis coach in 1995, a position she held through 1999
- Served VWC as the head women’s basketball coach from 1997 through 2003
- Former teacher and head girls’ basketball coach at Norfolk Academy, where her teams compiled a 250-128 record and won two conference championships and two tournament titles
- Former girls tennis coach at Norfolk Academy, where she led her teams to a 107-10 dual match record and seven consecutive Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools championships
- Accomplished wood-wind musician
- Avid hiker and climber who has ascended 48 North American peaks, including Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, and the highest point in the USA, Mount Whitney
- Has backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California and the Colorado Trail and completed her trek through the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) in northwestern Spain in June 2013
- Received her master’s degree in Human Resource Management from Alabama’s Troy University in 1999
- Received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1976 from Old Dominion University, where she was one of six original female athletic scholarship receipients, competing in basketball and tennis
- Graduate of Virginia Beach’s Frank W. Cox High School