Barbara Kelly Position: Asst. AD for Planning & Special Projects Education: East Carolina University & College of William & Mary

In her 35th year as a member of the Virginia Athletics Department, Barbara Kelly is one of the driving forces behind the creation and development of a national class women's athletics program at the University of Virginia. As assistant director of athletics for planning and special projects, Kelly oversees a number of special assignments, including the athletes' lettering program for 600 men and women athletes, and the annual production of the student-athlete handbook. One of her most enduring projects is the written and photographic history of women's athletics at the University of Virginia.

Kelly was the pivotal force that led the Atlantic Coast Conference to offer championships to its member women student-athletes. She was honored by the ACC, as the founder and inaugural tournament director, during the 25th Anniversary of the ACC Women's Basketball Tournament, held in Greensboro, N.C., in March of 2002.

She is co-founder of the University of Virginia Women's Faculty and Professional Association and was a recipient of its Woman of Achievement Award. Kelly has been honored by both the University of Virginia Women's Center and the Athletics Department as a pioneer and builder of women's athletics.

Shortly after undergraduate women were admitted to the University in 1970, Kelly was hired to develop a women's athletics program. She became Virginia's first full-time female athletics staff member when she was appointed assistant director of intramural and physical education. Kelly planned and developed a successful women's intramural and club sports program, setting the stage for the creation of the University's first three women's varsity teams (field hockey, basketball and tennis) in 1973-74. Today, the University fields 13 varsity sports for women, with golf becoming the 13th women's intercollegiate sport at UVa during the 2003-04 academic year.

Kelly coached UVa's first two women's basketball teams from 1973-74 to 1974-75, leading the Cavaliers to a two-year record of 25-12. She resigned as head coach to focus on the continued development of women's athletics at the University and throughout the ACC. She served as director of women's sports and as the primary senior woman administrator, working quietly and diligently behind the scenes for equitable treatment of female student-athletes and coaches.

As a member of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, she has served on numerous NCAA, ACC, AIAW, VAIAW and University committees. She was a Phi Delta Kappa inductee in 1961 and served the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame as the first woman on its Board of Directors, from 1977-79. She is listed in editions of the World Who's Who of Women, Personalities of the South, and Marquis Who's Who.

Before coming to Virginia, Kelly taught in the Norfolk school system for 10 years as a health and physical education teacher, intramural director and camp counselor. She served the Norfok Recreation department as a certified referee in basketball, volleyball and softball, as well as the director of its Summer Day Camp Program. It was here that she heroically saved the life of a visiting tourist off the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

The Garner, N.C., native was a four-year letter winner and co-captain in basketball at Garner High School. Upon graduation from high school, Kelly was recruited to play semiprofessional fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball in state and national championship competition in North Carolina and Virginia until 1971. Although she was offered one of the first basketball scholarships in Wake County (1956), to Pineland Junior College, N.C., she attended Campbell University and played basketball for two seasons prior to transferring to East Carolina University.

Kelly earned her bachelor's degree in health and physical education from East Carolina in 1961. She received her master's of education degree from the College of William and Mary in 1971.