Brad Jones was named the Academy of Art University vice president for athletics in 2024 after beginning as the director of athletics in September 2017.
In this role, Jones oversees all aspects of the ART U athletics program including student-athlete welfare, oversight of staff and coaches, compliance, academics, finances, operations, marketing, and the ART U Athletic Alumni Association.
Under Jones’ leadership, emphasis has been placed on three pillars for athletic focus and success; that of academic achievement, athletic success, and community involvement. Through these focuses Jones and the athletic department staff have continued to strengthen a well-rounded program at Academy of Art University.
Academically, the department
set a new record with a 3.15 cumulative grade point average in 2019-20 and has since matched that mark thereafter. In terms of athletic accomplishments, Academy of Art has seen 16 individual NCAA Division II National Champions crowned, over 140 NCAA DII All-Americans honored, and four Pacific West Conference team titles won including men’s basketball (
2022), women’s cross country (
2021), men’s golf (
2021), and women’s golf (
2019). After collectively putting in over 2,000 community service hours in 2019-20, the Urban Knights continued to give back throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and expanded their partnership with Fleet Week by creating the
“Hoops With The Troops” event in 2021 which brings together members of the military with local youth groups and ART U men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Previously the director of athletics at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Jones began with the Seasiders in 2016. The Seasiders' 2016-17 final season saw 17 All-PacWest Team selections highlighted by six from the women's tennis team including PacWest Player (Dallas Zhang), Freshman (Leah Heimuli), and Coach of the Year (Dave Porter). Additionally, after capturing the PacWest Academic Achievement Award (3.44 GPA) in 2015-16, the program finished second toward the 2016-17 honor (3.39 GPA) while collecting 119 Academic All-PacWest selections most notably with Zhang who was PacWest Women's Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year, a CoSIDA Academic All-American, and the ITA Senior Player of the Year. The Seasiders men’s golf and women’s tennis teams won PacWest Conference titles and the women’s tennis team placed second in the 2017 NCAA National Championships.
For over 10 seasons prior to BYU-Hawaii, Jones spent time in conference office administration and on campus with the University of Hawaii as the director of football administration, overseeing all administrative aspects for the University of Hawaii football team.
Jones started his career at the National Association of Basketball Coaches before moving to conference administration. He served as the director of championships at the Atlantic 10 Conference for five years and then worked in the same role with the Western Athletic Conference directing conference championships, regular season sport administration, conference committee work, branding, sponsorships, and scheduling duties.
Jones earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University in 2004.
