BALTIMORE, MD – Johns Hopkins Director of Athletics and Recreation Jennifer S. Baker announced the appointment of Ari Shapiro Miller as the Assistant Director, Student-Athlete Mental Health and Performance today.  Miller is the first person to fill the newly-created position; he will work directly with all 24 Blue Jay teams and more than 600 varsity athletes as Baker continues her development of student-athlete support services.
 
"Supporting the needs of every Johns Hopkins student-athlete is our highest priority and the addition of this position ensures we have an in-house expert in the area of mental health and performance dedicated to those student-athletes," Baker noted.  "Ari creatively developed a service model at the University of Vermont that separated him from a highly-qualified pool of candidates.  In addition to his background in the area of sport psychology and performance, his prior experience working directly in athletics provides a balanced view of how to develop relationships with student-athletes and provide them with the individual or group support needed to succeed at Johns Hopkins athletically, academically and socially."
 
Since 2017, Miller has served as the Assistant Director of Athletics for Sport Psychology and Counseling at Vermont; he previously had spent two years working with the Catamount men's basketball team as a sport/performance psychology consultant.  In the second of those years, Vermont posted a perfect regular season record in the America East and won the conference tournament before falling to Purdue in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Among the key initiatives Miller spearheaded during his time at Vermont was the development of a department-wide mental health and sport/performance psychology program.  The initiative, developed and implemented in collaboration with the department of athletics, student-athletes and the center for health & well-being, provided student-athletes with individual counseling sessions and training in mental and cognitive skills to reduce anxiety and enhance self-confidence.  His work with members of the coaching staff was framed around the concept of developing best practices to merge mental health success and competitive athletics.
 
At Johns Hopkins, Miller will be embedded in athletics while officially a member of the Counseling Center, which operates under the University's Division of Student Health and Well-Being.
 
"I am extremely excited and honored to take on this new position and be a part of the Johns Hopkins community," Miller noted. "Throughout the entire interview process, I was very impressed by the Athletics Department's and Counseling Center's commitment to supporting student-athletes and coaches in addressing the mental health and performance aspects of competing at the highest levels both academically and athletically.  I am very much looking forward to working with Blue Jay teams and being part of such a unique and incredible community."
 
Johns Hopkins' 24 teams and more than 600 student-athletes have a demonstrated level of success matched by few programs at any level across the nation.  In the spring alone, more than 150 student-athletes posted a perfect 4.0 GPA and more than 350 earned a spot on the Dean's List.  In addition, five of seven Blue Jay spring teams won conference championships and six of seven were represented in NCAA Championship competition.  While such success has become the norm, the challenge of competing athletically at the highest level while also enrolled at one of the top 10 national universities in the nation places unique demands on a Blue Jay student-athlete.
 
To meet those needs, Baker and her administrative team worked closely with the Counseling Center to develop the position, which is entirely based on a support structure that not only will allow students to succeed while at Johns Hopkins, but also help prepare them for experiences beyond their time at Homewood.
 
Miller will provide individual and group services to Johns Hopkins' diverse body of student-athletes.  In addition, he will develop psychoeducational workshops, outreach and consultation services for all members of the athletics community.
 
Perhaps just as importantly and in addition to student-athlete-targeted programming, programming will be provided to coaches, sports performance staff, and administrators to help them best support the student-athletes and reduce barriers to counseling.
 
Miller's athletics background includes four years as an assistant men's basketball coach at Saint Michael's College (2006-10), one season as the Director of Basketball Operations at Bryant (2010-11) and two seasons in the same role at Vermont (2011-13).  In his first season at UVM, the Catamounts won the America East Championship and defeated Lamar in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to North Carolina.
 
A 2004 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in sport management, Miller earned his master's in clinical psychology from Saint Michaels in 2011 and became a licensed clinical mental health counselor in Vermont.