Armani Dawkins

Armani Dawkins joined the Virginia athletics department in August of 2023 and currently serves as the Deputy Athletics Director for Competitive Excellence.

Dawkins directs the units under the competitive excellence umbrella (academic services, student-athlete success, sport administration, and sport performance) which work to ensure the talents of all student-athletes, coaches and administrators are supported at the highest level. She also serves as the department’s Senior Woman Administrator (SWA), and sport administrator for the Cavalier women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse programs.

Dawkins came to Virginia after working at Oklahoma for five years, including as the Sooners’ Deputy Athletics Director for Sports Administration and SWA in her last position. At Oklahoma, programs under Dawkins’ direct supervision captured national (NCAA) and conference (Big 12) championships while excelling in the classroom and engaging in the campus and local community.

Prior to being promoted at Oklahoma to Deputy Athletics Director of Sports Administration, Dawkins served as the Deputy Athletics Director for Administration & Chief of Staff. Dawkins had oversight of the department’s strategic plan, people, culture, and belonging, and served as a professional advisor to the Vice President and Director of Athletics. Within the department, she played a key role in the development of professional development programming for the department’s staff.

Before joining the Sooners’ athletics department, Dawkins worked at the College of the Holy Cross where she held the position of Associate Director of Athletics for Student-Athlete Development. She was a member of the Crusaders’ senior athletics staff and was responsible for implementing a series of programming to emphasize and improve the development and welfare of the department’s nearly 700 student-athletes. She also served as the sport administrator for the field hockey program.

Dawkins worked at Duke from 2010-15. Her last position with the Blue Devils was Special Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Athletics. She handled oversight responsibilities for the athletics director’s routine commitments, including public relations obligations and correspondence. In addition, Dawkins assisted the Director of Athletics with responsibilities for the Division I NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and Advocates for Athletic Equity. She also had oversight responsibility for all the executive administrative operations. She previously held positions at Duke as the Assistant Director of Iron Dukes for Special Events and Assistant Director of Administrative Operations and Human Resources.

Dawkins, a native of Parker, Colo., is a former women’s soccer student-athlete at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where she received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and media studies. She helped lead the squad to three Mountain West Conference titles while earning Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors. She played her freshman season at Florida State before transferring to UNLV.

Dawkins earned her master’s degree in strategic public relations from The George Washington University. She also was selected as a NCAA postgraduate intern within the branding and communications department.

Dawkins’s family includes her husband, Andre, son, Maverick and dog, Ares.