A two-sport athlete in baseball and football at Duke University, he played for Steve Spurrier on Duke’s most recent ACC Championship football team and graduated cum laude with a degree in English and Political Science in 1991. (He also played baseball on a team that finished 10-37.) Following Duke, he graduated cum laude from the Harvard Law School in 1994, at which point he began his varied professional journey. He initially spent two years as a law clerk for William Terrell Hodges, a United States District Judge, and then practiced in general business litigation and employment law with Smith, Helms, Mulliss & Moore, LLP in Greensboro, NC.

Whitaker left the firm in 1998 to join the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he was responsible for the club’s football operations and budgeting, as well as working with the salary cap and player contract negotiations. After two seasons with the Jaguars, he switched conferences and Florida coasts to work for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers alongside Tony Dungy. A three-year book-writing journey finally culminated with the 2007 release of Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy’s memoir. Since its release, it has become one of the best-selling hardcover sports autobiographies ever, is the longest-tenured sports-related book in the top ten of the NYT hardcover, nonfiction list, and has over two million copies in print.

He added a Masters in Entrepreneurship from the University of Florida in 2009, and has now written other books, several of which have become NYT best sellers: Role of a Lifetime, with James Brown of CBS Sports (2009), Uncommon, with Tony Dungy (2009t), The Mentor Leader, with Tony Dungy (2010), Through My Eyes, with Tim Tebow (2011), and Snap Decision, (2014).

He is the co-founder of a ministry, Impact for Living, that helps people live with God-given purpose, making use of their platform while following their passion and reaching their potential. In short, using their platform to impact lives around them – for good.

Whitaker currently lives in the Gainesville, FL area with his wife, Amy, and two daughters.

Jim is a popular speaker for conferences and schools and has been a keynote speaker for educator conferences, graduations, banquets, and School Sundays. He has also presented workshops at numerous schools and conferences including the International Reading Conference, the American Educational Research Conference, the Ontario Christian Educators Conference, and the League of Christian Schools National Conference. He has published work in The Elementary School Journal and Teachers of Vision and authored the Environmental Science standards for the National Boy Scouts Association. He was a finalist for SECME’s National Teacher of the Year Award for his work in developing a science program aimed at reaching minority students.

Over the past 10 years, Jim has grown The Rock School from 140 students to more than 400 students. In the process, the school has maintained strong retention rates, extremely high national parent satisfaction scores, and was even able to increase tuition more than 50% during a tumultuous economic period.

Jim has 10 years of experience in coaching, training, and consulting with Christian schools across North America in the areas of marketing and enrollment through his Marketing Masterclass for Christian Schools. Hundreds of Christian school leaders have benefited from his insights and training. As the head of a thriving Christian school his teaching and training is based on best practices he has verified in his own school setting and seen replicated in other Christian schools across the country. Jim currently serve as the marketing & enrollment consultant for the Van Lunen Center, an organization that provides world-class executive management training for heads of Christian schools.

Jim lives in Gainesville with his wife, Hannah, and their 5 children.