Mary Giardina

Biography

Mary Giardina, a 15-year collegiate athletic administrator, was named executive senior associate athletics director for student-athlete experience, governance and compliance at West Virginia University in January 2026. At WVU, she serves in a senior leadership capacity overseeing the Student-Athlete Academic Services unit and administers the Athletics Compliance operations. She comes from Florida Atlantic where she worked since 2022 as deputy athletics director/chief of staff, overseeing 19 varsity sports, 450 student-athletes and 125 employees. Prior to FAU, she served as executive director of compliance at Duke and director of compliance at the Atlantic Coast Conference. Her career also includes roles in sports information and compliance liaison work at Duke. Giardina began her professional career in 2009 as a teacher at New Orleans College Prep. A former Wake Forest track and field student-athlete, she earned her bachelor's degree in health and exercise science from Wake Forest in 2006 and her master's degree in liberal studies from Duke in 2013. She is a native of Huntington, West Virginia.