Jolie is a native Georgian, born in Albany (Al-ban-ee as we say in the South) and graduated in 1982 from Deerfield Winsor High in Albany. Her focus on physical education and health was a product of her parents. Her father was a chiropractor and mother a Registered Nurse. Jolie graduated from the University of Georgia (UGA) with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Health, Recreation, and Physical Education. Jolie attended UGA on an athletic scholarship where she ran cross country, indoor, and outdoor track in the highly competitive Southeastern Conference.
Jolie’s first foray into the real world was a position teaching Physical Education to K-6 students at Mount Zion Elementary School is Carrollton, GA for two years. An opening for a track and field coach at the prestigious private Atlanta school Pace Academy lured Jolie to Atlanta and Pace Academy in 1991.
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Jolie felt so at home with the faculty of Pace Academy that she married one of the faculty members, Steve Cunningham. Steve is a notable and acclaimed cross country and gymnastics coach in his own right, but that is another story for another time. Jolie has received recognition as the Regional Coach of the Year in Cross Country in 2003, and numerous other honors for her outstanding program at Pace Academy. She acknowledges her best experience was “attending an Olympic Development Training Center in California in 2002 with eight others 800-meter coaches. Jolie’s proteges have earned eight individual state track titles and twelve cross country state awards during her tenure. Jolie’s goal is for her students to “develop self-confidence and a lifelong love of fitness. So much can be learned from athletics and being part of a team.”
Jolie’s hobbies include, but are not limited to, Steve, anything with Callie, running, reading, camping, pickleball, and travel. Her favorite race was the Cave Spring 5K, and she likes any race at boundary waters in Douglas County. She has two dogs, a cat, and a horse. Steve’s biography at Pace Academy sites that he also has a “fish”, which Jolie does not list as a pet in her biography.
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Steve and Jolie’s daughter, Callie, graduated from Pace Academy in 2014 and in 2013 was captain of the school state cross country champion team. Callie also competed for the Georgia Southern Equestrian team while at Pace. She currently is earning a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at Georgia Southern University. When Callie became ready to leave home, Jolie and Steve developed an appreciation for inanimate objects-mainly race cones. They purchased the Kenny Duncan collection that was only available when Kenny followed his wife Kim to Massachusetts. Jolie and Steve’s cones marking race sectors on roads can be readily identified by the trademark KD (Kenny Duncan) mark. Steve likes the cones because as a man he appreciates objects that are well stacked. Jolie likes the cones, besides the rental revenue that they earn, because that stay where they are stacked, do not talk back, and remain in place unless hit by a vehicle.
Bob checking out from the back of the pack