Marija Pientka has served in a number of leadership capacities during her tenure with the Badgers, including nineteen years on UW Athletics Department executive management team. Pientka has extensive and broad experience in athletics administration including in external relations, revenue generation, internal operations and sport administration.
Pientka currently focuses on sports administration which includes oversight of the volleyball, softball, women’s rowing, and men’s and women’s swimming and diving and tennis programs. She also represents UW on the Big Ten Conference Joint Group, Administrators Council and Olympic Sport Operating Committee.
Pientka is skilled in project management and has led the implementation of a number of Wisconsin Athletics-wide systems to improve efficiencies such as Teamworks Hub and Real Response.
Pientka is active on the national intercollegiate athletics scene. Her four-year term on the NCAA Division I Tennis Committee – of which she chaired the women’s tennis sub-committee in 2016-17 – was marked by significant changes to the sport including the implementation of a new scoring format and championships structure. A long-standing and active member of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD), Pientka was nominated and elected by her peers to serve as president of the organization in 2010-11 after serving on its board for the previous three years.
Under Pientka’s leadership, Wisconsin’s development and ticketing teams successfully developed and launched a number of new initiatives which positively impacted both gift dollars and donor numbers. Pientka led the effort to develop and launch the Badger Fund, the department’s first-ever comprehensive annual fund program which now generates over $11 million annually for student-athlete scholarships. Additionally, Pientka was integral in initially developing and marketing Wisconsin’s 108 luxury suites and 1,000 club seats, which have maintained sold out status since their inception. Pientka successfully lead capital campaigns that secured over $110 million in private gifts for the construction or renovation of athletics facilities such as the Camp Randall Stadium, LaBahn Arena, Heritage Hall, Outdoor Tennis Complex, Golf Training Center, Goodman Softball Training Center and Porter Boathouse.
A graduate of UW-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Pientka began her career in athletic administration as a communications intern at the Big Ten Conference. She returned to Madison in 1997 to serve as an athletics development director and was then promoted to assistant athletic director for development in 2002.
One of UW’s most accomplished tennis players, Pientka was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024. She was an all-America and one of only four Badgers to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors in each of her four years of competition. Pientka currently ranks ninth in career singles wins and fourth in career doubles wins at Wisconsin. She earned Academic All-Big Ten honors three years.
Pientka and her husband, Jim, are parents to Alea, Sophia, Jessica and Jack, and reside in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Updated: September 26, 2024
