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Vera Roberta Jones (born July 24, 1966) is an American motivational speaker, author, and former television and radio broadcaster. Her broadcasting career includes over 30 years of sports, news, and music, most notably, providing women’s basketball color analysis and reporting with the Big Ten Network (2007 -2020), Madison Square Garden Network (MSG) (1998-2005), Fox Sports (2000 – 2001), ESPN (1997 – 2003), and NBA TV (2000 – 2004). She was the inaugural recipient of the Dawn Staley Award for Broadcast Excellence (2018)

As a professional speaker, Vera provides keynote speaking, training, and coaching for some of America’s top corporations, government entities, associations, colleges, and universities. Her stage and training platform, “Play Through the Foul,” helps individuals and teams develop mindsets and strategies for overcoming adversity. Vera is the author of 5 books, has performed on stage with the Paul Robeson Performing Arts company, and has performed stand-up comedy. Her awards and honors include a 2002 induction into the Syracuse University Orange Plus Hall of Fame and a Letter Winner of Distinction induction in 2018. A Goalcast video of Vera Jones called Trust Your Vision went viral in October of 2017 and has garnered over 47-million views.

Early life
Vera was born July 24, 1966 in San Bernardino, California, to Mary K. and William T. Jones. She has one older brother, James D. Jones. Due to her father’s career, their family left the west coast and moved to Washington, DC, where her father took a position with the Washington, DC government when she was 3.

Vera started playing basketball at the young age of 5 after she begged and convinced her mother to order a basketball off the back of a Raisin Bran box. Vera remembers the ball as being “free with two proofs of purchase.” Her father, an architectural civil engineer, supported her earnest interest in basketball by putting up a basketball goal over the garage of their driveway. Raised in Prince George's County, Maryland, Vera began playing organized basketball for the Silver Hill Boy's and Girl's Club at the age of 9 in 1975 and competed until age 14. She credits her older brother with making her a tough competitor, as her most victorious childhood memory was finally being able to beat him in a game of one-on-one when she was 11.

High School
Vera attended Friendly High School - 1981 - 1984 (10th - 12th grade). She was an honor student who excelled as a 3-sport athlete. She led her basketball team in scoring all three years of high school as an All-County and All Metropolitan Washington, DC basketball standout, and her team’s Most Valuable Player. She led her team to a County championship but came up short in the State semi-finals in 1984. Vera also played left field for the Friendly High School softball team and was a power hitter in volleyball. In 1984, Vera was inducted into the Friendly High School (Fort Washington, MD) Hall of Fame for both basketball and volleyball.

Vera began playing in elementary school. She would go on to play the flute and saxophone in the symphonic, jazz, and marching bands. A natural on stage, Vera participated in several performances theatrically as part of the Drama Club. Voted Most Likely to Succeed, Vera’s other accolades included election to Senior Class Vice President, participation in the National Honor Society, and receipt of the Superintendent of Schools Award. Perhaps a foretelling of a life to come as a Motivational Speaker, Vera gave her first big oration when she was chosen to deliver the Class of 1984 Commencement Speech.

Vera was awarded a full Women's Basketball Scholarship to Syracuse University in 1984. She was Friendly High School's first female athlete to receive an NCAA major Division I full scholarship.

College
Vera entered Syracuse university in the fall of 1984 and graduated with honors from S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism in 1988. She returned to her alma mater in 1989 as a Graduate Assistant and Academic Advisor for the women’s Basketball team. She would go on to earn a Master of Science in Television, Radio & Film in 1991.

Vera was a member of a series of “firsts” at Syracuse University. The Women's Basketball Team won Syracuse's first Big East Tournament Championship her freshman year in 1985 and first Big East Regular Season Championship Title her senior year in 1988. They advanced to the women’s basketball program’s first-ever NCAA tournament in 1985 and again in 1988. Vera led the Syracuse Orangewomen in scoring her junior and senior years and also scored the school’s first 3-point field goal. Her ability to shoot the 3-pointer earned her the nickname, “Sweet V from the Top of the Key,” a moniker that would follow her for the rest of her sports and sports broadcasting career. She graduated as the school’s career best 3-point field goal scorer and career best 3-point field goal percentage (35.3%). She remains among the top career 3-pt field goal percentage shooters in Syracuse University record books. Vera is also a member of Syracuse University’s 1000-point club, scoring 1,113 career points in her career, despite only having the 3-point line active for her senior year, and only amassing 54 points as a freshman. Vera was also the first-ever Syracuse University Women’s Basketball player to earn the Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.

Notable Honors from Vera’s Syracuse University career include: Syracuse University's first-ever Women's Basketball Big East Scholar Athlete of the Year Inducted into the Syracuse University Orange Plus Hall of Fame in 2002 Recognized as a Letter Winner of Distinction in 2018 (the highest honor given to a former Syracuse University student-athlete)

Broadcasting Career
Vera began her broadcasting career in college. Her first gig was in 1985 as a member of WJPZ and later, WAER FM88 student run radio stations at Syracuse University, broadcasting news, sports, and Top 40 music. She also interned in the sports department of the Syracuse CBS News affiliate in 1988. Upon graduation in May of 1988 from Syracuse University, Vera was recruited to work in the Fast-Track to Management program at Procter & Gamble as a sales and marketing representative in the beverage division in Wayne, PA. Her job was to merchandise Folger’s Coffee and Citrus Hill Orange Juice, a far cry from her broadcasting passion. So a few months into her corporate job, she began moonlighting in 1989 as the weekend voice of WBUX in Doylestown, PA. Thus, her first paid, professional opportunity came as an on-air personality for WBUX’s “Music of the Stars” program, featuring nostalgic greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

Vera returned to Syracuse University when offered a graduate assistantship in August of 1989. She worked behind the scenes to help launch the first full time Urban Contemporary radio station, AM 1490-WOLF in Syracuse, NY in 1990, and became the first and only woman on-air personality at the time upon launch in 1991. She was recognized and featured by the Syracuse Post Standard as one of the city's Top 10 favorite on-air personalities in 1992. After Syracuse’s blizzard of 1993, Vera set her sights on transitioning to warmer weather and a hotter career, moving south and accepting a position at WNMB 105.9 as the Nighttime Love Songs host in Myrtle Beach, SC. Her on-air name was changed to Bobbi Jones.

Only 6 months after becoming Bobbi Jones, Vera was recruited by a cross-town radio rival station to become the first-ever African American broadcaster for the Atlantic Broadcasting Company's Country Music radio station, Gator 107.9. In 1994, she was awarded the company's first-ever South Carolina Association of Broadcaster's Award for Personality of the Year as part of the Marv & Bobbi in the Morning Show on Gator 107.9 in Myrtle Beach, SC. The on-air handle, "Bobbi" was derived from Vera's middle name - Roberta. Gator 107.9 also went on to claim its spot as the #1 station in the Myrtle Beach market, according to Nielsen ratings, and was voted the South Carolina Broadcasters Association Large Market Radio Station of the Year in 1994.

In 1995, Vera was recruited back to Syracuse, NY to help launch the first full time Smooth Jazz radio station WXCD-CD107.9 in 1995. Was the first and only female on-air personality as well as the station's Operations Director before the station was bought out for close to $3M in 1996.

The sale of WXCD warranted yet another move for Vera Jones who headed back down south to become the first-ever African American Woman Program Director for WFLM- 104.7 the Flame, an Urban Contemporary formatted station in Fort Pierce, FL in 1996. There, Vera was awarded the station’s first Silver ADDY Award for commercial production and helped take the station to its first #1 in the Nielsen ratings.

Vera was working at WFLM, when she received her first big break to become a freelance women’s basketball analyst in 1997 for ESPN. This opened the door for her to become one of the most widely recognized women’s basketball commentators as she appeared on ESPN’s desk for the Road to the Final Four alongside her sports broadcasting idol, Robin Roberts (now with Good Morning America) for three March Madness seasons (2000, 2001, and 2002)

Vera was one of the earliest broadcasters for the WNBA which began in 1997. She began serving as a radio and television women’s basketball analyst in 1998 for the New York Liberty on the Madison Square Garden Network (MSG). She was a broadcaster every season from 1998 – 2005, with the exception of the 2000 season where she provided analyst and reporting duties for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever as part of the Indiana Pacer’s Organization. Her ESPN and NBA-TV broadcasting duties also included coverage of the WNBA from 2000-2004.

Personal Life
Vera married her WOLF, Syracuse morning show co-host, Stephen Soleyn, known professionally as DJ Squid, in June of 1997. The two gave birth to Andrew Veran Soleyn in 1998, but later divorced in 2002. The trials of becoming a single mom at the height of her ESPN broadcasting career were only the beginning of Vera turning her tests into testimonies.

In March of 2007, while coaching at Indiana University, Vera’s mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Two weeks prior to her death, Mary K. Jones told her daughter to, “Give up coaching basketball, finish writing that book, get yourself on the speaker’s circuit so you can inspire people, and then get yourself on Oprah!” The power of her mother’s words and the pain of her mother’s death provided the prophecy that would guide the rest of her professional speaking career.

Speaking Career
- Vera founded Vera’s VoiceWorks, LLC in 2008 and went on to author and publish her first book, Play Through the Foul – Basketball Lessons for the Game of Life in 2009, from which her motivational speaking career took flight. In addition to motivational speaking, she also launched Play Through the Foul Team Building and Communication Training that provides professional development workshops and seminars to include leadership, diversity and inclusion, and conflict resolution coaching and training. Ironically, Vera’s first corporate client was once also her first corporate employer, Procter & Gamble. Other notable clients have included General Electric, Marriott, Microsoft, the United States Patent & Trademark Office, Walmart, and Wells Fargo.

- In March of 2010, Vera’s only son, Andrew, was diagnosed with a craniopharyngioma, a brain tumor that was severely hindering his pituitary gland and optic chiasm. Emergency surgery to remove the tumor took place a week later at Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. Andrew survived the life-threatening surgery, however he lost the majority of his sight and was left without pituitary function, a condition known as panhypopituitarism. On stage and in her book New Best Friend – A Little Book of Faith, it was in Vera’s recounting the trials of her son’s experiences and the life lessons learned in having to help him overcome this adversity, that Vera’s career as an inspirational speaker gained greatest momentum.

- Vera was selected to speak at the Inbound Conference in 2016. She presented her signature Play Through the Foul and Trust Your Vision speech as one of the conference’s Bold Talks presenters. Later in October of 2017, an edited, 8-minute version of the original 15-minute Inbound speech appeared on Facebook and instantly went viral. The video caught Vera totally by surprise, as did the overnight attention and global recognition that came with the moving presentation. To date, the video has been viewed over 47-million times on the original Goalcast post and appears on numerous YouTube subscriber channels. In her book, Now I See – A Journey of Prophecy, Pain, and Purpose (Outskirts Press 2019) Vera recounts October 27, 2017 as a defining moment of purpose in her life.

Books

 * Jones, Vera (2019). "Now I See: A Journey of Prophecy, Pain, and Purpose". Outskirts Press, Inc. ISBN 978-1-9772-1773-8
 * Jones, Vera (2011). "New Best Friend (A Little Book of Faith)". New Jersey: Karen Hunter Media, LLC. ISBN 978-0-9845060-8-8
 * Jones, Vera (2011). "The Only Sun". Florida: Vera'sVoiceWorks Media. ISBN 978-0-9840929-3-2. Digital ISBN 978-0-9840929-4-9.
 * Soleyn, Vera Jones (2009). "Play Through the Foul". Florida: VoiceWorks Media. ISBN 978-0-9840929-0-1
 * Ali, A.J. and Jones, Vera (2009). "The True Champion's 30-Day Challenge". California: Marathon of Miracles.

Awards

 * Syracuse Basketball Hall Of Fame
 * South Carolina Radio Broadcaster's Association Personality of the Year 1994