Clark Atlanta Director of Athletics to Serve as Panelist at NCAA Football Coaches Academy Danielle Wright 05/24/10 ATLANTA (May 24, 2010) – Clark Atlanta University (CAU) Director of Athletics, Dr. Tamica Smith Jones, has been selected to serve as a panelist at the 2010 NCAA Football Coaches Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 26, 2010. The Academy, sponsored by NCAA Diversity and Inclusion and the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee, is designed to improve and reinforce various aspects of securing, managing and excelling in head football coaching positions at the intercollegiate level.  Jones, who also served as a panelist for the 2010 NCAA Convention Diversity Day Leadership Session, will be sharing with participants the attributes and qualifications an athletic director looks for in hiring candidates for head coaching positions. She will also discuss her path from coaching to becoming an athletic director. The mission of the NCAA Football Coaches Academy is to assist ethnic minority football coaches with career advancement through skills enhancement, networking and exposure opportunities while raising awareness regarding the substantial pool of talented ethnic minority coaches. The objectives of the program are to: increase the understanding and application of skills necessary to secure head coaching positions, increase the understanding and awareness of competencies necessary for success in head coaching at the intercollegiate level, motivate assistant coaches and coordinators to pursue careers as head coaches at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, introduce ethnic minority coaches to senior-level coaches and administrators, raise public awareness of the existing talent pool of ethnic minority coaches and promote the coaching profession to student-athletes, graduate assistants and others.