Jena Virga (B.S. ’79, MBA ’81) attends a lot of games at Old Dominion University, but she doesn’t get to see much of them. She’s too busy running around S.B. Ballard Stadium or Chartway Arena, visiting club and ticket holders, donors and fans.
“There’s very little time I get to spend and watch a game,” said Virga, the University’s senior associate athletic director and executive director of the .
She may not be following plays and logging stats, but “the donors don’t want me for that,” she said. “They want me to talk about their commitments, their finances and what they want to support.”
Virga has been in donor relations for more than 15 years. In that time, she has helped raise more than $170 million toward the University’s athletic facility capital projects, programmatic enhancements, endowment and planned giving efforts, and annual scholarship funding. She’s led those efforts since 2022.
That money has helped renovate S.B. Ballard Stadium, Mitchum Family Basketball Performance Center, Paul Keyes Baseball Hitting Complex and the soon-to-be Ellmer Family Baseball Complex at Bud Metheny Ballpark, currently underway. Fifteen endowed scholarships were added in 2025, totaling nearly $50 million.
The University’s debut of women’s volleyball in 2021 is a particular highlight for Virga. It included a $3.1 million renovation of the old basketball practice facility at the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building into a volleyball venue.
“It was so exciting to start another women’s program and to be on the very front line of it,” she said.
In August 2024, the Norfolk Sports Club named Virga its Tom Fergusson Metropolitan Person of the Year in Sports. She is only the fifth woman to receive that honor since the sports club created the award in 1943.
“Everything big that has happened at Ҵý Athletics in recent years, Jena has been a part of it,” said Jack Ankerson, who served on the committee that selected Virga, in a 2024 story on the Ҵý Athletics website. “What she’s done for Ҵý has just been remarkable.”
former Old Dominion Athletic Foundation co-worker;
Sam Perelman (B.S. ’18, MBA ’20), former ODAF intern;
Virga; and Alyssa Jones Miralrio (B.S. ’16), former ODAF
co-worker, at Foreman Field during renovations.
Photo Courtesy of Jena Virga
Relationships Matter
“I love my donors, and I love the relationships that I have with them,” Virga said.
Virga’s office is full of memorabilia. A large aerial shot of S.B. Ballard Stadium adorns one wall. There are football helmets in Hudson Blue, a pennant from the 2018-2019 Conference USA men’s basketball championships and a variety of ODAF awards. Her door is decorated with photos of her with smiling donors at various sports events.
When asked what traits make her excel at her job, the former bank executive says she’s never met a stranger, and what you see is what you get. “I wear my heart on my sleeve, which can be good or bad in this world.”
If a donor texts her late at night, she can’t help but respond to that ping. A strong work ethic was instilled at a young age. She was 12 when she started answering phones in her father’s real estate office, she said.
“Robert D. Woodley, real estate and insurance,” she recited without hesitation.
Virga, a Norfolk, Virginia, native, was a commuter student in the mid-1970s like many of her high school friends, who also attended Old Dominion University. “I’ll tell people, I have been driving to Ҵý for over 50 years.”
She credits the University with helping her land her first job in banking. While pursuing her MBA, she worked every other semester for First Virginia Bank through the University’s cooperative education program. She was hired into management training and became a branch manager at 22, she said.
She was driven by results: how many loans could she help secure and how many checking and savings accounts could she help open? But, she recalled older customers approaching her with skepticism.
“They would walk in, they’d look at me and they’d be like, ‘There is no way I’m going to talk to that girl back there about my money,’” recalled Virga, who had a decade-long career in banking. “And, before I left that branch, they’d sit and talk to me for hours.”
‘The Best Job Ever’
Virga reconnected with her alma mater as a member of the advisory board for the Strome College of Business. As she was considering next career steps, it dawned on her: “It’d be kind of fun to go to work at Ҵý,” Virga recalled. She was hired in 2008 as the major gifts officer for Strome College of Business. It was Mark Benson, then the University’s senior associate athletic director, who convinced Virga to bring her talents to Ҵý Athletics in 2010.
“I know nothing about athletics,” Virga recalled telling him. “Don’t worry about it,” Benson told her. “It’s a piece of cake.”
Virga said it was actually a trial by fire. She was no stranger to raising money, but collegiate sports were something else entirely. She started shortly before the beginning of the University’s football season, which — having been resurrected in 2009 after a 69-year hiatus — was a hot ticket item. The calls were incessant.
I’m telling you, for two weeks, I had a twitch in my eye, because every time I would write down 10 messages of things I needed to do, I’d get 10 more,” she said. “I was so stressed out, because I had no idea what I was doing.”
But, she survived, and she decided she had “the best job ever.”
“I’ve never had so much fun trying to figure out how to get people their tickets, how to show them the premium areas, how to get them their hospitality and their parking, and all the things that go into game day and what we do for our donors. And, I just loved it.”
Photo Courtesy of Jena Virga
Leading with Heart
Wood Selig, Ed.D., was hired as the University’s athletic director around the same time as Virga. He recalls her energy, passion and enthusiasm. Dr. Selig said people give to causes that resonate with them, but first they give to the individuals representing the cause — Virga’s passion for Ҵý Athletics is infectious.
“She’s very good at articulating the need, and she’s not hesitant to ask for support.”
Her consistency of sustained excellence is the biggest feather in Virga’s cap, he added, and her steadfastness has enabled her to deepen her relationships with donors.
“Jena makes a hundred-dollar donor feel like a million-dollar donor,” Dr. Selig said. “And, she makes a million-dollar donor feel like a million-dollar donor.”
But, she especially loves the University’s student-athletes, he said. “I think that’s her passion, knowing that at the end of the day, she’s making education, an Ҵý degree and athletic opportunities available for so many Ҵý student-athletes.”
ODAF board member Kelly Till (B.S. ’94) says Virga is her alma mater’s No. 1 cheerleader and “an exceptional ambassador for the University.”
Virga leads with heart and purpose, Till said, and she credits Virga with increasing the number of women on the board. In January 2024, when Till became the second woman to chair the ODAF Board, Virga’s excitement may have exceeded her own, Till said.
Till, who is the first woman president and publisher to lead the Richmond Times-Dispatch, said she and Virga have swapped stories about filling positions that have been historically male-dominated.
“She just rolls with the punches, even when there’s been challenges in that area. I respect her for it, but I think part of it is just her attitude and who she is. She doesn’t take things too seriously. She doesn’t let things get her too worked up. She tries to find a solution around whatever the issue is,” Till said.
“She’s just a good human.”
Working Hard and With Purpose
Back in her office, Virga said she may have had to work a little harder to prove herself among her male counterparts, but she considered it just another challenge to overcome. And now, there are more women filling similar roles than when she started.
“That’s been wonderful to see women coming up in this industry and playing bigger roles,” said Virga, a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic Development Directors Executive Board.
Reflecting on her University career, Virga said the work is challenging, but often a lot of fun. The driving force is the University’s student-athletes, her development team and generous donors, many of whom feel like family.
“We do the best we can and we try so hard,” Virga said. “Everybody’s committed on this team, and we’re so lucky. We have the best donors in the world — they always step up to the plate. How fortunate are we to have that?”
What’s Teed Up Next?
A fundraising campaign to support Old Dominion University’s golf program launched this year. One of its goals is to renovate the University’s performance center for men’s and women’s golf. Virga said the $7 million to $8 million project will include new locker rooms, coaches’ offices, hitting bays and enhanced performance technology. It also includes the purchase of Riverfront Golf Course in Suffolk, Virginia, placing the University among an elite group in the state and conference that owns its own golf course.