A good football coach doesn't have to be great at playing the style that they coach their players for. Having worked with her before, Dava is a great leader and manager - which is I think what's needed for a position like this.
It's a double edged sword especially in academia. People who are excellent at executing in their field of choice are not always good managers. This is a bit of a personal soapbox, but I think one of the most entrenched problems in graduate education is the assumption that someone who is promoted on their academic merit will also make for an effective advisor/lab manager/project director/etc.
Depending on what you do, you might have a natural gift or be a good learner for management skills—but you also may not. If you're not and shoehorned into it for tenure (or whatever other reason), both you and your students suffer.