Jill Ellis

Ellis has a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) Pro coaching licence; with coaching experiences that includes multiple stints for the under-20 and under-21 national teams, and an impressive record as a UCLA Bruins coach. She is the development director of the USSF. She served as assistant coach of the women's national team, head coach of a number of women youth teams, and was the interim coach of the senior women's national team in 2012, and for 2 matches in 2014. She was appointed the permanent head coach of United States women in May 2014.

College coaching

Ellis served as an assistant coach for three universities: at Maryland for three years, 1994–96; at Virginia for one year, 1996–97; and at NC State for another three years, 1988–90. As an assistant coach at N.C. State, Ellis helped the NC State secure the 1988 Atlantic Coast Conference title and an NCAA Women's College Cup appearance. Ellis headed the Illinois women's program for two years from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, she brought the Fighting Illini to a 12–8 record and a first-ever Big Ten Tournament berth. Ellis led UCLA to eight NCAA Women's College Cups, including seven in a row from 2003 to 2009, and won six straight Pacific-10 Conference titles from 2003 to 2008. She finished her time in Westwood with a record of 229 wins, 45 losses and 14 draws (229–45–14). She was the 2000 NSCAA National Coach of the Year after leading the Bruins to the NCAA championship game in just her second season as head…

Jillian Anne Ellis was born on 6 September 1966 in Folkestone, Kent, England. She grew up in Cowplain, a small village 11 mi (18 km) north of Portsmouth on the southern coast of England. She was a supporter of Manchester United, and attended Padnell Junior School and Cowplain School. Naturally athletic, she ran track and field, and played field hockey and netball, but did not play organised football as there was no organised football for girls in the UK in the 1970s. She would, however, tag along with her brother Paul and play with the boys whenever they needed an extra player. Her father, John Ellis, a former Royal Marines commando, was a longtime football ambassador for the British Government, assigned to help create football programs worldwide, including in Trinidad and Tobago and in Singapore. He also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. women's national team in 2000 and 2001. In 1981, the Ellis family moved to Northern Virginia, where John Ellis founded Soccer Academy in Manassas. Ellis captained the Robinson Secondary School team in Fairfax, Virginia, to the 1984 state championship, and won the under-19 national title with the Braddock Road Bluebelles the same summer. She went on to play as a forward at William & Mary from 1984 to 1987, when she was named third-team All-American. She scored 32 goals during her four seasons at the school. Her brother Paul also became a football coach, coaching area high school teams and serving as an assistant coach at George…

In 2015 Ellis was living in Palmetto Bay, Florida, a suburb of Miami, with her wife Betsy Stephenson, whom she married in 2013, and their adopted daughter. Ellis, along with her parents and brother, are naturalised American citizens.

Ellis was Third-Team All-American in 1987 at College of William and Mary She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2016, and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa as an alumni member at the College of William and Mary in 2019. In June 2022, Ellis was an honoree of the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Great Immigrants Award.