Khayla Pridgen joined the Jackson State University Athletics staff in June 2024 as the Director of Football Academics and was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director for Academics in February 2025.
Pridgen’s primary responsibility is to provide leadership and oversight of academic services for all JSU athletics teams, including the Tiger Center. Her focus is to collaborate closely with university partners and stakeholders to ensure alignment with campus best practices and help JSU student-athletes graduate with a meaningful degree. In her role, she also directly advises and coordinates academic services for football, baseball, and support staff students as their academic advisor.
She came to JSU after serving as academic counselor for football at Auburn University. While at Auburn, she was responsible for coordinating academic services, assisting in summer bridge programming, and overseeing academic onboarding for football student-athletes. Before advising football, Pridgen served as the counselor for Equestrian and Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving.
Before Auburn, Pridgen served in a dual role as Student-Athlete Development Graduate Assistant and Assistant Academic Counselor at the University of Louisville. In this role, she advised a caseload of students from lacrosse, men’s basketball, rowing, and track & field, while also assisting in the creation and facilitation of student-athlete development programming.
A native of Columbus (Ga.), Pridgen earned her bachelor’s degree in Marketing with a minor in Sport Communication from Clemson University in 2019, and her master’s degree in Sport Administration from the University of Louisville in 2021.
Pridgen is a member of the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A), Women Leaders in Sports, and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
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