Deidra Dryden was named the Vice President of Development at Southern Virginia University in April of 2024. Dryden has more than two decades of experience as an athletic administrator and head coach at the University—most recently as Associate Athletics Director for the past five years, Senior Woman Athletics Administrator for the past eight years, and head women’s tennis coach for the past ten years.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, Dryden served as Southern Virginia’s acting athletic director spearheading the university’s NCAA Division III exploratory application process and leading the athletics program to its highest combined winning percentage (.566). That year she also led her women’s tennis team to a 15-3 record, which marked the best season in the program’s six-year history.

Dryden began coaching at Southern Virginia in 1997 when she helped recruit the university’s first women’s basketball, volleyball, and soccer teams. From 1998-1999, Dryden was the head women’s soccer coach leading the team to an impressive 10-2 record in its inaugural season, capped by a NSCAA national championship. That year she was also head women’s basketball coach and guided the first-year team to a fourth-place finish at the NSCAA national tournament. In the spring of 2000, she became head softball coach in the program’s second year and took the team to a second-place finish at the NSCAA national tournament. Dryden’s intercollegiate athletic career includes playing tennis at Brigham Young University-Hawaii and playing basketball and tennis at Columbus State University. Dryden also served as the Title IX Coordinator from 2015-2017.

Dryden has a BS in math education from Columbus State University and an MEd inMathematics from James Madison University. Deidra and her husband, Dr. Brent Dryden, reside in Buena Vista and have five children.