Carla Williams
With her background as a student-athlete, coach and administrator, Carla Williams has a forward-thinking approach to leading Virginia Athletics. Her focus is on providing opportunities for student-athletes to maximize their college experience while establishing a culture and support system for the sport programs to reach their maximum potential.
Williams’ goal is for student-athletes to develop in all areas and prepare themselves for their futures away from athletic competitions. To ensure that approach becomes a reality, she launched The Master Plan project that will set the course for generations of future Hoos.
The $90 million, 90,000-square foot Molly and Robert Hardie Football Operations Center opened in June of 2024 and the Harrison Family Olympic Sports Center will open its doors in the fall of 2025. Included in the final phase of The Master Plan will be a permanent location for the “Center for Citizen Leaders and Sports Ethics” where student-athletes benefit from UVA’s vast network of alumni and supporters while being exposed to learning opportunities that focus on leadership, career and personal development and community engagement.
UVA launched its groundbreaking Pathways program to assist in those ventures. Pathways uses University, community and alumni resources to connect student-athletes with areas of interest to help jump-start their career goals, enhance valuable skills and accelerate their leadership abilities.
When telling her personal story, Williams is quick to point out she would not have been able to attend college if it were not for her basketball skills. She used the opportunity to have a successful career on the hardwood, launch a coaching career and become one of the nation’s top athletics administrators. She knows first-hand what college athletics can offer and wants the student-athletes at Virginia to strive for and reach unprecedented heights in their personal and professional journey.
During her eight-year tenure as UVA’s athletics director, Williams has witnessed many history-making moments for the Cavaliers including 10 national championships.
The Virginia men’s basketball team won the program’s first NCAA Championship in 2019, and the Cavalier men’s lacrosse team captured its ninth overall and second consecutive national title in 2021. The UVA women’s swimming and diving team won consecutive national championships from 2021-25. Men’s tennis captured its sixth overall NCAA team title in 2023 as the Cavaliers registered a fourth-place finish in the Directors’ Cup all-sports standings for the 2022-23 academic year. UVA added another top-five Directors’ Cup finish with its fifth-place showing in 2023-24.
In 2019, the football program won the Coastal Division and played in the ACC Championship game and Orange Bowl.
UVA has won 22 total ACC Championships during Williams’ tenure at Virginia.
In the classroom, UVA student-athletes have set record numbers for placement on the ACC Honor Roll, achieved the highest-grade point average totals in program history, and been recognized by the NCAA for outstanding achievement on academic progress reports. In all, 20 UVA student-athletes have earned ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors in their respective sports since 2020.
Williams’ appointment at Virginia in October of 2017 made her the first female African-American athletics director at a Power Five conference institution.
Williams was selected to work on the NCAA’s NIL Legislation Solutions Group to examine student-athlete name, image and likeness rights and was also selected for the NCAA Federal and State Legislation Working Group.
In 2021, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips appointed Williams to the newly formed ACC Football Subcommittee that allows the league’s head football coaches to be involved in the development and growth of the sport within the conference.
The success of UVA under Williams and her involvement in some of college athletics’ top issues have not gone unnoticed. She was named the Women Leaders in College Sports 2019 Administrator of the Year for all NCAA Division I FBS athletics programs. In 2021 and 2024, the Sports Business Journal named her one of its finalists for Division I athletics director of the year.
In 2024, she was appointed to a three-year term on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. She became the first African-American female athletic director named to the committee.
Prior to coming to Virginia, Williams served as an athletics administrator at the University of Georgia for 13 years and was named deputy director of athletics in 2015.
Williams was an All-SEC guard on the basketball court, then helped recruit and coach some of the greatest teams in Georgia’s history before moving on to become one of the highest-ranking female administrators in Division I athletics.
Williams began her administrative career at Georgia in 2004. In Athens, she served as associate athletic director (2004-08), senior associate athletic director (2008-11) and executive associate athletic director (2011-15) before being promoted to deputy director of athletics.
Prior to joining the Bulldogs’ staff, Williams was an assistant director of athletics (2000-03) and an associate director of athletics (2003-04) at Vanderbilt. From 1997-98, Williams was coordinator for student-athlete development and life skills at Florida State. While completing her Ph.D. in sport administration, Williams was also a graduate assistant for athletic academic support from 1998-2000.
A native of LaGrange, Ga., Williams was a three-year starter for the Lady Bulldogs from 1986-89. She finished her career with 1,115 points, 425 assists and 285 steals.
Williams was an assistant coach on Hall of Fame coach Andy Landers’ staff from 1991-96, including teams that reached the 1995 and 1996 Final Fours, with an NCAA runner-up finish in 1996, and won the 1991 and 1996 SEC Championships.
Following the 1995-96 season, Williams moved into administration. She served as UGA’s assistant director of compliance from 1996-97 before continuing her ascent up the administrative ranks at Florida State, Vanderbilt and Georgia.
The Southeastern Conference named Williams as one of its SEC Trailblazers in February of 2022 as part of its celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX.
Williams and her husband, Brian, who holds the title of associate professor of public policy at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, have three children: two daughters, Carmen and Camryn, and a son, Joshua.