JMU Announces Multiple Staff Updates for Duke Club, Ticketing & Strategic Revenues

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne announced multiple new appointments within key areas of the department's external relations and revenue generation operations on Tuesday, highlighted by the elevation of Scooter Renkin to Associate Athletic Director for Development and Brad Burgess to Associate Athletic Director for Ticketing and Strategic Revenue.

Renkin's promotion to head of the JMU Duke Club coincides with the retirement of Senior Associate AD Cliff Wood while Burgess fills a role similar to soon departing Assistant AD for Ticketing and Customer Relations Mike Carpenter. In addition, the Duke Club welcomed two new development officers: Jared Lowry and Dillon Thomas.

"I'd like to congratulate Cliff Wood on his retirement and thank both Cliff and Mike Carpenter for their service to JMU Athletics," Bourne said. "I'm extremely excited to appoint Scooter Renkin and Brad Burgess to their new roles as Associate Athletic Directors. Both have been with JMU Athletics for 5 years which will give us continuity while still bringing fresh perspective to these critical areas of our department. As we transition to the Sun Belt and with the additional costs of competing at the FBS level, revenue generation is one of our most important priorities. Scooter and Brad will be tremendous advocates as we work with JMU Nation to boost the trajectory and success of JMU Athletics."

Renkin returned to JMU to join the Duke Club as an athletics development officer in 2017. Prior to his new position as head of the Duke Club, his fundraising success led to a promotion in 2021 to oversight of major gift efforts as the Duke Club's outreach expanded in line with JMU's move to FBS football and the Sun Belt Conference.

Renkin said, "I'm excited to continue to work with our donor base and look forward to tremendous growth in the Duke Club as we enter the Sun Belt Conference."

He began his intercollegiate men's basketball career at JMU before transferring to Division II Indiana University in Pennsylvania. Renkin is a 2013 graduate of IUP and a 2016 master's graduate of the VCU Center for Sports Leadership. He held previous fundraising roles at Richmond and N.C. State.

Burgess has been with the Duke Club since the summer of 2017 as an athletic development officer and was promoted to assistant A.D. for internal development in early 2021. In his new role, he will assume oversight of all aspects of the ticket office as well as the department's efforts behind strategic revenue growth.

Burgess said, "I'm excited about this new challenge to work with our passionate fan base to build on the success of the ticket office as we continue to grow season tickets and investigate new revenue opportunities."

Before he returned to JMU in 2017, Burgess spent a year in a development role at Western Carolina. Burgess holds two degrees from JMU - both a bachelor's and master's in sport and recreation management and leadership - and served as a graduate assistant in JMU's student-athlete leadership development program from 2014-16.

Jared Lowry most recently served as a development assistant at Kansas State. He also worked as a development officer intern at Shenandoah University and as a graduate assistant in the School of Business at Shenandoah. He is a double business administration graduate of Shenandoah ('19, MBA '20).

Dillon Thomas is a recent 2021 graduate of Roanoke College and has held various positions related to business and sports. He has worked as a Logistics Manager at Taimen Transport since 2021 and has other experience at Roanoke as an intern for the athletics department as well as an assistant for the alumni department.

With the staffing updates, both areas still have pending positions to fill in order to complete their staffs. The Duke Club is seeking to fill a vacant director of the annual fund role, while the JMU Ticket Office has two vacant assistant director positions.

Fans can continue to support JMU Athletics by making a donation to the Duke Club or buying season tickets at JMUSports.com.

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