Julie Jones is a highly respected leader in collegiate athletics, with a career spanning 26 years as a Division I softball coach, athletics administrator and champion for women’s athletics. Her coaching philosophy has always been centered on developing well-rounded student-athletes—Smarter Students, Stronger Athletes, and Better People. Now, as the founder of SSB Performance, LLC, Jones applies her passion for personal growth specializing in mental performance coaching helping athletes and business teams nationwide develop a Smarter, Stronger, Better mindset. In addition to her work as a mental performance coach, Jones serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Akron, Ursuline College, and Baldwin-Wallace University. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including well-being and performance, sports psychology, athletic coaching, and public speaking. She played a pivotal role in developing Ursuline's Curated Wellness master’s program and Institute for Women, Wellness and Work. A dynamic and engaging public speaker, Jones has delivered presentations to hundreds of groups, from Fortune 500 companies such as Sherwin-Williams and Oswald Companies to national conferences, business teams, and athletic programs. Known for her energy, passion, and practical insights, she speaks on mental performance, leadership, communication, team culture and peak performance. During her tenure at Cleveland State University (1993-2006) and the University of Akron (2006-2019), Jones achieved over 500 career victories. She began her head coaching experience at CSU as the youngest head coach in the country and ended her time there with the most wins in school history of any sport. Her leadership produced five Academic All-Americans, 55 All-Conference honorees, eight NCAA All-Mideast Region selections, 86 Academic all-conference student-athletes, 13 Academic All-District selections, 12 All-Region selections, four Pitchers of the Year, the 1997 MCC Player of the Year, the 2016 prestigious MAC Nan Harvey award winner the 2017 MAC Freshman Pitcher of the Year. She was named MCC Coach of the Year. These honorees and their teammates rewrote the CSU and UA record books for pitching, home runs and all base running categories as a perennial NCAA leader in stolen bases. Her players excelled on the field and in the classroom, with team GPAs reaching as high as 3.53, and they regularly received accolades for their community service efforts. Jones’s impact extended beyond the softball field, as she implemented leadership and mentoring programs at both Cleveland State and Akron. She also served on NCAA championship committees and played a key role in NCAA Compliance at Cleveland State. Her legacy includes five former players being inducted into the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame and many others continuing their athletic careers professionally, both in the U.S. and abroad. A graduate of Baldwin-Wallace University, where she was a standout catcher and NFCA Academic All-American, Jones led her team to the NCAA Tournament and set records that still stand today. Her contributions to the sport and her teams have been recognized with inductions into the Baldwin-Wallace Athletics Hall of Fame and the Summit County Softball Hall of Fame. Jones also earned a master’s degree in Communication theory and Methodology from Cleveland State University and is a graduate of Leadership Akron (Class 28) and the prestigious NACWA/HERS Administrative Institute. Jones's dedication to excellence is also reflected in her personal life. A breast cancer survivor, she is a seven-time winner of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Survivor Award. Her commitment to giving back is further demonstrated through her involvement with the Leadership Akron Alumni Association and several other community boards, including serving as past chair of the Gay Community Endowment Fund. Jones remains involved with the sport she loves as regional director of the USA Softball High Performance Program and Softball at the Point, LLC, a company she co-owns, which offers coaching clinics and camps to help young athletes achieve their dreams of playing in college. Jones’s expertise, resilience, and passion for developing leaders—whether on the field, in the classroom, or in the boardroom—make her a highly impactful speaker, leader and mentor in performance coaching and personal development.