BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Kimberly Jones On Faith, HBCUs, And Building Futures

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 7 • Episode 3

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What if the smartest move you ever made wasn’t the safe one—but the faithful one?

Detroit native, Central State University alum, and educator Kimberly Jones joins us to share how faith, a no-excuses mindset, and the unique power of HBCUs can transform students, campuses, and communities. From cleaning chalkboards as a child to leading a school from “continuous improvement” to “effective,” Kimberly reveals how love, structure, and high expectations turn doubt into momentum.

Faith runs through everything. Kimberly traces her roots to grandparents who migrated from Selma to Detroit, a church community that held her steady, and a daily practice of getting 1 percent better. She offers clear advice for young people: slow down, plan your future, avoid permanent decisions in temporary emotions, and treat education as a passport to the life you want. Her legacy is visible—in her children, her students, and the opportunities she advocates for behind closed doors.

She breaks down why professors who know your name matter, how HBCUs build identity and confidence, and what it takes to create authentic partnerships with organizations like Honda, P&G, and JPMorgan Chase—while always keeping students at the center. Grounded in faith and guided by legacy, Kimberly offers practical wisdom for young people and leaders alike: plan your future, grow daily, and treat education as a passport to possibility.

If you’re hungry for leadership that serves, teaching that transforms, and partnerships that create real pathways, you’ll find a blueprint here. Subscribe, share with a mentor or student who needs encouragement, and leave a review to help more listeners find conversations that build courage and legacy.


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SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to season seven of Be a Baller, the podcast where success isn't a goal, legacy is. This season is all about intentional living, leading with purpose, serving with faith, and leaving a mark that outlives us. We go beyond the highlights, bringing you real conversations with legacy builders from ministry, business, sports, education, and community. Leaders committed to the wisdom pledge, paying it forward to the next generation. If you're ready for faith-filled leadership and practical wisdom to live on purpose and finish strong, let's be a baller, legacy style.

SPEAKER_04:

Welcome back to Be a Baller Podcast, where we lift up voices shaping legacy and leadership, education, and community. Today's guest is Miss Kimberly Jones, a proud native of Detroit, Michigan. We got her in Ohio now. And she was sharing off airs at one one weekend when she's kind of torn, you know, when the when the buckeyes and the Wolverines play. But she's also a proud graduate of uh Central State University, um, HBCU school here in Ohio. Kim is a career educator and youth advocate whose mission beats loud and clear connect, empower, and equip the next generation. For more than three decades, serving schools as a teacher, program director, counselor, dean, and principals, and principals she's led with passion and results, including moving her school's academic rating from continuous improvement to effective through bold leadership and innovation. Today, Kim continues that impact on a wider stage as director of strategic partners and internal affairs for her alma mater, Central State University. She's a mentor and a believer in the power of education, the president of the Central State University Columbus Alumni Chapter, and a proud member of Alpha, Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. Make sure I get that right. And a champion for young people who says her goal is to make every student feel loved, necessary, and prepared. Her motto says it all education is your passport to the future of Malcolm X. Let's welcome a different maker, a servant leader, and a legacy builder, Kimberly Jones. Thanks for being on the show.

unknown:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. That was a great intro. I was like, gag, I want to know her.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I'm blessed to know her. You know, I'm truly blessed to know you and watch you grow. I remember when you first came to Columbus, Ohio, and and now looking at you now has just been a joy through that. So I want to I want to jump right in. I know you spent almost 30 years in education. Uh what for what first sparked your passion for serving young people?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, um, I have to go back to the beginning. You know, um, when I got ready to go to college, uh being a first-generation uh college person in my family, I kind of leaned to my family and my dad specifically and said, you know, what should I go to school for? And he was like, go where the money is. So when I entered Central State University, I was a business major. And it didn't take long though. It did take long for me to realize, although I appreciated business, that just was not my, that's not what made my heart sing. Um, helping people always made my heart sing. So I had a a course over in Wesley Hall, and we were just talking about, you know, it was a psychology course, and just talking about knowing yourself and doing things that are right for you. And um I changed my major the next year, and I became an elementary education major because I really felt like I was blessed with great teachers and I wanted to be a teacher, that kind of teacher.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh, speaking of that, I know you. Uh who was that teacher that kind of shaped your belief in education? Who was that teacher?

SPEAKER_01:

I was it was a lot of them. I think about in my elementary school in Detroit, I went to um Turner Elementary. I think about my kindergarten teacher. When I was in, I think, first or second grade, she would allow me to come back from my class, my first and second grade class, to come to her classroom to just, you know, clean the chalkboards. I mean, that was helping her, but to me, I felt like I was a part of, you know, like I was doing something that the teachers did, you know. So I I shout out to E.M. Turner, shout out to King uh Ludington uh middle school. I went to uh Castec. I went to, I eventually graduated from Montford High School. And at Mumford, I had a teacher, uh Jewel Jones. She was that person that uh guided me to Central State. So I was very lucky. I had a lot of great teachers that, you know, they they were those people that said, Kim, I see something in you. And because of my relationship with them, I I listened and geared me towards education.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, uh when did you realize education wasn't just a career? It was your calling.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think when I came into education, when I came here to Columbus, I remember my first school was Medina Middle School. And uh Sandra Whitehead and Dorothy Turnbull, I remember them telling me that it's one thing for me to come to work every day and to be a teacher, but it's another thing for me to come to work every day and to be a mentor to the students, you know, to share my journey with them, um, you know, not to give them passes and, you know, passes in like, okay, you didn't do your homework and listening to all those stories. And some of those stories were valid, but always holding them to a higher level, saying that, you know, what do you want to be? And um learning that early, and then always trying to bring that back up, them like, okay, now you said you want to go to school to do this. Well, you need to do this part first so you can get there. And, you know, just being, you know, that person that's um mentoring them along the way.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, as a classroom teacher, and also know you're a coach. So you would do it all. You know, how was that? How was that team? How was that team? I give you take.

SPEAKER_01:

That was that was crazy. I I loved, I, I, I what one thing that I learned about that, good goodness gracious, is I enjoy playing better than I enjoy coaching. Coaching was very stressful. Um, yeah, but uh as a as a player, I remember they said, we don't have a coach. Did you play? You know, I was tall. So they was like, Did you play basketball? Yeah, I played basketball. Need you to coach. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, from that from your classroom experience, uh, what did you love? What did you love most about being a classroom teacher?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I what I love the most, I I think about, I taught math most of the time. And so I love the fact that students would come and say, even parents will say, you know, I wasn't good at math and everything. And so I always would tell them my story that I didn't have that excuse because my dad was very good at math. So you know, it was like, what's wrong with you? Why can't you figure it out? But I enjoy helping students see what they thought was impossible, you know, breaking down the mathematics so they could understand it, teaching the history in a way that it engaged them and made them excited about it and wanted to learn more. You know, back then we definitely taught Black history and, you know, it was something that taught it to encourage, not only teach them about the history, but to also encourage them to say that this is the lineage that you come from. You know, so this situation that you're dealing with now, when you compare it to what was dealt with in the past, you have it in you to make it through. So yeah, I I I really enjoyed students just seeing that light come on.

SPEAKER_04:

That's good. Reminding that you do have it in you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, we all have it in us.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, yeah, I know as a classroom teacher, it's something when that light bulb kicks in. Some student gets it, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. It's Jones, I got it, I got it.

SPEAKER_04:

I got it. I know that brings you joy. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

I if I could tell you real quick about a story when I was at Afrocentric. Um, so it was uh I was one of the founding teachers of Afrocentric, and I think this was like maybe our second year. I was teaching middle school, and we had some students, I'm not gonna give their names, but um there because they're active here in Columbus now, but I remember we had that proficiency test. And so it was like everybody was so stressed out about the proficiency test and everything. And, you know, we had some students who we just knew should pass, and they did, but there were some, I had one student, he was a basketball player, he was everything though, what you saw on the outside besides a student athlete at that time. He was definitely an athlete and called the names of the people who passed their math proficiency, and they called his name to see how proud he was and how stunned the other students were. They were like, what? And I was like, that was like our thing. He loved math. And so when he passed that, uh I I just remember that as uh things when the light goes off.

SPEAKER_04:

That's a great story. As a principal, you help move uh your school's performance uh rank rating. What mindset and strategies help turn those things around?

SPEAKER_01:

So um I think when you when you become and when you go into leadership, I just looked at the school as an extension of my classroom. So what I did in the classroom, I tried to bring to the school as a whole. So I um worked really hard with understanding my teachers and understanding where they were in their journey as a as an educator. And then, you know, trying to rally us and make sure that they had all the resources that they needed in the classroom. Because it was just kind of like what I did with my students. Students say, I don't have any uh paper, I don't have a pencil. I would always have paper and pencil. Don't get to use that as an excuse. When you're a principal, sometimes you would have people say, Well, you know, this student came to me like this and they were behind, and say nicely to the teachers, like, that is our job to help them learn, you know, fill in the gaps. So it was one thing to say, like, hey, everybody, this is what we have to do. But I felt my job was to make sure they had all the resources that they needed to get the job done. And so, and we were lucky and we got it done.

SPEAKER_04:

Amen. Amen. You know, um, you were a proud Central State graduate. Can you talk about your HBCU experience?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so um, like I said, I um I came from Detroit, uh, Central State University. It was not my first choice. Um, just like kids here in Ohio, uh, they their first choice is Ohio State because that's all they, you know, they see. So my first choice was either Michigan or Michigan State. So that's where I wanted to go. But at the time um when I got I got accepted into Michigan, but not main campus. I got accepted to one of the satellite campuses, and I didn't want to go there. And it was one of those things where you go to the satellite campus for a year or two and then you can transfer up. And I was like, no, I want, I want to go to the main campus. So I was distraught. And um my teacher, Jules Jones, she was, she said, my business teacher at Mumford, she said, I'm glad you didn't get accepted. I wanted you to go here anyway. She threw down a paper application. I filled it out. And I I tell people all the time, it's the best decision I made. I mean, I made that decision. My parents didn't make it. They didn't know, I mean, they knew about my dad knew about Central because some of his friends went there on athletic scholarships. But Central State to me helped me learn who Kim was. You know, they gave me, it was a nurturing environment where, again, those teachers, those professors, they didn't allow me to have any excuses. You know, they allowed, they allowed me room to grow, but they also were the people like if I decided I didn't want to go to class, I had professors that would come to the cafeteria and say, Where were you? You know, so that that is the environment that we had at Central State. And I think that's what you get at an HBCU, unlike uh PWI. Um, and I I don't have a problem with people going to PWIs, but I really feel, especially in this time, it is so important that students know themselves before they go out into the world. And I believe that an HBCU education can help you find who you are.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I've heard this several times from you already about no excuses. Can you expound on that for some young people?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I mean, at Central State, we learned that, and it this was something that was said all the time, and everybody knew it. Excuses are tools of incompetence. Those who use them seldom amount to anything. And so that was something that was ingrained in me, and I ingrained it in my children. Um, and it's it's like it's so easy to say I can't, or this is too much for me. And we have to learn how to, and I don't care what it is, I mean, losing weight, gaining weight, I mean, you know, trying to learn a new skill. You don't have to try to learn it all at one time. But if you are focused on learning something or doing something, making a change in your life, each day you want to get, I've heard people say this now, 1% better. So what are you doing today to get 1% better? So that was the thing that I was basically saying to my students, to my children, what can you do every morning that God chooses to wake you up? You're here another day, as we say, brand new mercies, you know. So you're here another day to get better. And so that's what I've kind of ran my life like that.

SPEAKER_04:

Awesome. Can you talk about why uh faith is so important to you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, faith is very, very important to me. As a as a child, um, my grandparents, and you know, the thing my grandparents, James and Luella Clay, they um I remember hearing the stories of when they were in Selma, Alabama. And from Selma, Alabama, they moved to Detroit, Michigan. And, you know, I often think about like how did they find out about Detroit? There were no cell phones, you know, uh limited newspapers, but as I learned through history about things like the Chicago Defender, and that was like the underground railroad newspaper for African Americans. And that is what the purpose of that paper was to let people in the South know that there's opportunity up here up north. Don't listen to them down there telling you, oh, it's horrible up there. So, but my grandparents instilled in me, I was lucky that my my parents they weren't together until I turned about nine years old. Then we um began living together. But my formative years were with my grandparents. And so they instilled in me the importance of going to church, the importance of having a relationship with God. They instilled in me that it's more than just you out here. You're not by yourself. And so I carried that. I've been um at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church under Pastor Keith Roy and Brenda Troy for over 30 years and gone through things in my life. And my faith has carried me, my spiritual family has comforted me. And so I just try to show my children and anyone that's around me that it's more than just us. You know, we're not here by ourselves. We're not alone.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, you uh thank God for grandparents. And during those times, you uh what your current role is at Central State University. What brought you back to Central State?

SPEAKER_01:

So it was interesting. Um, during the pandemic, I, you know, I kind of made a decision that I'm, you know, start doing things that I want to do. And not that I I wasn't, but I wanted to be really focused on me. And the pandemic gave us the opportunity to sit down and think. And so um, right at that time, um, Central State got a new new principal, had uh principal, excuse me, president. It went under new leadership, and I met a young lady that was working there, and we just kind of talked about, she was telling me about the different things that she wanted to do at the university and how she wanted to do um bring in more corporate partners. And so thus my position was uh formed, which is the director of strategic partnerships and external affairs. So basically, I am the liaison between the corporate partners, any uh corporate or organization that wants to be involved with Central State University. And so it is like people call it my dream job because I have the opportunity to work and give back to the university that gave so much to me.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what kind of practices, strategies help you create the trust and momentum with those major corporations like Procten Gamble, Honda, JP Chase Morgan?

SPEAKER_01:

So I believe one thing, I believe in telling our story. Um Central State has a great story being the only public HBCU here in Ohio, telling the story about how as an HBCU, as I've said before, that it's a it's a nurturing environment. And then that environment, it pushes you to be what you you know, what you can be in the best setting. Um but one of the things, again, consistency, not trying to bite off too much for me, not trying to bite off too much that I can chew. I I will only agree with the things that I know that we can do. So I'm not gonna agree to do something, even if a corporate partner is throwing a lot of money, because you know, you get more money. My belief is you get more money in be by being successful the first time, then you go back a second time. A lot of times I believe in like telling our story, making sure that we are, I only agree on things that I know that we can fulfill, and then being consistent with the partners, you know, bringing them on campus, engaging, finding opportunities for them to engage with our students.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow, that's a great strategy. It's been working well. Yes. You are also active with organizations that support education and uplift communities of color. Why is this work critical at this moment in time?

SPEAKER_01:

So, yes, I am uh a member of Alp Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. I do work with, I'm the president of the Central State alumni chapter. I reluctantly tell people that because I don't, I'm not a title person. You know, I'm just the one that, you know, collects the mail and have to have to organize all this stuff. But it's always been important. But it's very important now because there are forces out there that are trying to erase and they're trying to pigeonhole, I believe, people of color. And so it's very important that we talk to um get into the schools and talk to the student and show them that there is opportunity out there. There's ways for the students to go and get that higher education because the research shows that a student with a bachelor's degree will make more money over time than a student with a high school diploma. Now, they there are some fields where students can go and get like certifications. And then if you're not going to get those certifications, then I would say a college degree would um do would serve you better and allow you to matriculate through a career um faster than just you know starting with a high school diploma.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, you often say you won't want you want young people to feel loved and necessary. What does that look like in action?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so it's um work like I said, I work at Central State, I do the corporate partnerships, but I also teach. I teach the um freshman seminar class. And um just uh Thursday. A student asked me, like, do you like teaching uh college students better or elementary students? And I told them I I've enjoyed it all because I feel that whenever a student comes across my path, they need to know that I am a person that they can count on. So how do I show that? By building relationships, understanding what it is that, why are they on that campus? You know, what is the goal? You know, and even I have some students who are just there, like a student will tell me, I'm just here to play football. Okay, that's that's great. Now, what is the plan B if the football thing doesn't work? So I I need you to have some type of education because you need grades to play football. So well, how are we gonna target our education to play football? So I just want I I I hear of so many students' stories and they don't, you know, they're coming from really challenging relations or um situations, and I didn't have that. I had came from a very loving family. So I think it's my job to spread that love to students.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what speaking of that, what do you want every student that you encounter to believe about themselves before they graduate?

SPEAKER_01:

I think simply that they can do anything that they put their minds to. I I really, I really believe that. If you want it and you work hard for it, you hear these athletes talk about it, how you know they had pictures and vision doing the things that they wanted to do. It's no different if you want to be uh work in a corporation, if you want to be an entrepreneur. You have to have that vision and you can you need to rally people in your life so that you can do whatever it is that you want to do.

SPEAKER_04:

Let's go back in time. You know, if you can go back and encourage first year teacher Kim Clay at Medina Middle School, what would you tell her?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh gosh, I would tell her, I would really tell her the same thing because teacher Kim and Kim and her personal life was the same person. She's always been uh a perfectionist. I'm the oldest, I have a younger brother, and I've always felt like it is my job to make sure that you know I don't make any mistakes so he won't see any mistakes. That is a crazy thing to think, you know, and it's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. So I wouldn't put as much pressure on myself. I would just give her a hug and love on her and tell her to work hard.

SPEAKER_04:

Tell her job well done. Job well done. You know. This is a legacy podcast. We talk about building legacies. What legacy are you building? And what do you hope those who follow after you carry forward?

SPEAKER_01:

First and foremost, my legacy comes from my children. I have three children, Malcolm, Richard, and Amaya. And they they are my legacy. You know, every day I can look at them and like most parents, and I see parts of me in each one of them. So I look at the work that I or the time that I spend with them, and then they go out and they have friends and relationships. And again, I spend time with their friends, so it's branching and growing that way, and then it's gonna branch and grow through their children. The other way I feel that I'm leaving a legacy is through the students that I work with. I think that it's again, it's so important that students know that they can depend on you, they can count on you. Um, they know that you are gonna be that person that's gonna be hard on them, but yet still, if they need something, they can email you or or uh text you and say, hey, I I I have this question. Can you help me out? And so that's my my legacy. And I just believe, like I said, and then not taking it from Malcolm X, education is our passport. Wherever we want to go, we can get there through education.

SPEAKER_04:

You have a lot of fruit on your tree. And I heard um someone on the podcast, they shared about that tree. So the legacy is the fruit on their tree, but it's also the fruit on other people's tree. When you when you look at you got your tree, the people you the students you've encountered personally, and now they have fruit on their tree. And that's how this legacy thing keeps going, you know. You know, as we come around the corner, I need you to fill in this blank.

SPEAKER_01:

The future belongs to young people who the future belongs to young people who prepare for it today.

SPEAKER_04:

Goes back to that education, is that passport to the future prepare today?

SPEAKER_01:

What you're doing today is going to be the foundation that you're going to build upon for tomorrow. So I just truly believe that.

SPEAKER_04:

Now speak to young people. Since we have this mic, we have this platform. What is that they should be doing today?

SPEAKER_01:

Let's see. What would I say to young folks? I think I would say to them, don't be so in a hurry. This life is definitely not a sprint, it's a marathon. And it's okay not to know, it's okay to be scared, but you still have to keep moving forward, regardless of how you're feeling in the moment, especially in the moment. Don't make a decision in the moment that will determine your future. I I see that so often that everything now is so fast paced. And, you know, we look at reels and everything, and we want to see it happen in the 25 seconds or 15 seconds of that reel, but that's not realistic. So we have to pace ourselves out. We have to plan for the life that we want, and it's not gonna happen in any miraculous fashion. It's gonna happen because of the work and the effort that you put into it before you got to it.

SPEAKER_04:

Put into it before you got to it. That's a top domic moment there.

SPEAKER_01:

Boom. You know, I'm I like Jay-Z. You know, I'm a I'm a kid from the 80s.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow, what a conversation. You know, what what a great leader. I want to give a huge thank you to Kimberly Jones for reminding us that leadership isn't a title. From the classroom to the principal's office and now creating pathways and partnerships for a whole university, you are proof that when you lift up young people, communities rise with them. So I want to thank you for answering that call. You know, for giving up that business, you know, making all that money and jumping into this. Also I want to thank you for, I think when young people see you and people see that they they see the Holy Spirit on you. You know, they they see your they see your glow, they see your faith, they see you as someone they know they can trust. And if anything, the young people need today is someone that they can trust. They know they can come in, you've always been that way where they can come into your office, they can come into your classroom. And I love that story you shared about uh your kindergarten teacher, that you can always go back, you know, there, even as you got older and cleaner. It's those little things, you know, that you saw, and now you're doing that for others. And that's what this life is all about. You've gone from being a mentor to being a sponsor. It's one thing to be a mentor to talk about stuff, but it's another thing to be you're in the room now. You're in the room with the with those major corporations, letting them know, give this student a chance, give them an opportunity. And they may not have the highest GPA, they may not have all that, but now you're that sponsor in the room, and I got this from Jordan Miller that you're pounding that table. Give them an opportunity. So I want to encourage you to keep pounding that table, you know, keep giving students those opportunities for success. Until next time, I'm darling to stay encouraged, stay committed, and keep building a legacy. Uh, this is the Be a Baller Podcast, and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Don't forget to subscribe and share. Thank you for being a guest today, Miss Kimberly Jones. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you for spending time with us here on Be a Baller Podcast. Remember, legacy isn't built by accident. It's built through daily choices, faithful obedience, and intentional impact. If today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or spoke to your heart, share this episode with a friend, a teammate, a leader, or someone who's ready to live with purpose. That simple act of sharing helps us grow the movement and spread legacy-minded living. We want to invite you to join the legacy movement. This is more than a podcast, it's a call to action. And one of the best ways to go deeper is by grabbing your copy of the book Living a Legacy. It's a powerful resource designed to help you apply what you're hearing and start building something that truly lasts. Until next time, keep showing up, keep pouring into others, and keep building a legacy worth following. Thanks for listening, and remember be a baller, live on purpose, leave a legacy.