MEET OUR FOUNDER
Judy Fox
MEET OUR FOUNDER
Judy Fox
The Heart Behind The Mission
For more than 35 years, Judy Fox has invested in athletes, coaches, educators, and emerging leaders around the world—helping people discover their created purpose, build unbreakable character, and ignite unshakable hope through the universal language of sport.
Through the founding of Ignite International, what began as a dream planted through a single mission experience has grown into a global movement of leaders whose service is rooted in relationships, established with excellence, and sustained by faithfulness—leaders committed to empowering others to create generational cycles of lasting impact.
Judy Fox
Founder of Ignite International, Inc.
If you spend much time around Judy Fox, you'll walk away with four words etched in your mind:
"It's all about relationship."
Those four words have shaped her life, her leadership, and ultimately the founding of Ignite International.
Whether interacting with athletes, coaches, dignitaries, blue-collar workers, or youth with a dream, Judy believes that lasting transformation happens through steadfast relationships built on kindness, trust, respect, and authenticity.
It doesn't matter where someone comes from, what language they speak, what they believe, or what circumstances they face. Every person wants to know they matter. Every person wants to belong. Everyone wants to know they can become greater and be part of something bigger.
More than two decades later, that belief has become the heartbeat of Ignite International—shaping every decision, every experience, and every connection Ignite creates around the world.
A Dream Planted
As a collegiate athlete, Judy's journey was anything but typical.
A respected multi-sport athlete in high school, Judy arrived on campus having never played volleyball. She made the team as a walk-on and for the first time in her life found herself in unfamiliar territory—"I was used to being one of the best. For the first time in my life I was the worst."
During her freshman year, she was the only player who didn't get to play, didn't always travel, and didn't always suit up. Even so, this season proved to become one of the most defining seasons of her life.
It defined her coaching, shaped her leadership, and underscored her conviction that one doesn't have to have the biggest name to make the biggest impact.
They just have to be grounded in something bigger than themselves. And when one's vision is on something larger than self-gain, the amazing can become normal.
In Judy's sophomore season, she became a starter, and by her senior year, she was honored as a First Team All-American.
The recognition opened doors that would ultimately change the course of her life.
Shortly after graduation, she joined a sports ministry trip to Mexico. It was there that a simple thought entered her mind and never left:
"I could do this forever."
She had no idea what that would look like.
But she absolutely knew that the language of sport had the power to open doors where others would not likely go, build relationships where they otherwise would not exist, and transform lives in ways others can't imagined.
A dream had been planted.
Years of Preparation
Dreams rarely arrive fully formed.
Over the next 14 years, Judy coached at multiple levels, including the NCAA Division I level in one of the premier volleyball conferences in the nation.
Looking back, she now sees that what appeared then to be a coaching career was actually a season of preparation.
Every relationship.
Every leadership opportunity.
Every job responsibility.
Every challenge.
Together, they paved the path for something not yet revealed.
Long before Ignite International officially existed, Judy formed the skills required to mentor athletes, disciple teams, manage logistics, develop leaders, and navigate cultures.
Fourteen years of preparation.
Ignite is Born
In 2002, while helping launch a volleyball club in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, one word unexpectedly changed everything.
Ignite.
The name instantly connected with a Scripture passage that had deeply impacted Judy years earlier on that trip to Mexico:
"His Word is in me like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones."
What began as a name for a volleyball club became something much bigger.
Less than a year later, while serving on church staff and balancing an already full schedule, Judy sensed a clear prompting:
"It's time."
Not because she lacked preparation.
Not because she was waiting for the right opportunity.
But because the season of preparation had reached completion.
On May 19, 2003, Ignite International was officially founded.
Within days, the organization's first opportunity appeared.
The journey had begun.
What Ignite has taught me about people
Over more than two decades of serving athletes, coaches, schools, and communities around the world, one truth has become increasingly clear:
People are far more alike than they are different.
"We all bleed the same.
We laugh the same.
We cry the same."
Regardless of nationality, language, background, culture, or circumstance, every person longs for hope.
Every person longs for purpose.
Every person wants to be believed.
Every person wants their life to matter.
These truths have been confirmed repeatedly in gymnasiums, classrooms, churches, communities, and nations around the world.
The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow
Of all the experiences throughout Ignite's history, one moment continues to capture its heart.
Following the tragic attack on School Number One in Beslan, Russia, Judy found herself standing before students, teachers, and families carrying unimaginable grief.
She did not have answers.
She did not have explanations.
She only had truth.
Drawing from a lesson once shared by her own coach, she told them:
"All I know to tell you is 'The sun will come up tomorrow.'"
She encouraged them to take it...
One sunrise at a time.
One step at a time.
One day at a time.
The following year, when she returned, students still remembered those words.
An additional two years later, photographs from that visit remained displayed in the school's hallways as she handed their director the first soccer uniforms their team had ever received. Real uniforms.
The lesson was never about a speech.
It was about showing up.
Returning.
Staying engaged even through distance.
And reminding people that even in the darkest of nights...the sun will come up tomorrow. Hope remains.
Judy's Background
Raised in East Stroudsburg, PA, Judy’s family heritage is rich in faithfulness, integrity, and lasting relationships. She credits her parents for setting an example of devotion to God and each other as well as for raising Judy and her brother in a home where love was common and strife was not. In addition to her parents, Judy considers her impact a jewel in the crown of each of her grandparents, who modeled a genuine love for God's Word and its ability to transform darkness to light and to deliver hope in adverse spaces.
Judy's educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from Houghton University (NY) and a Master of Sports Science in sports coaching from the United States Sports Academy (AL).
Her global impact is evidenced by her induction into four halls of fame, including the National Christian College Athletic Association Hall of Fame, Houghton University Hall of Honor, East Stroudsburg Area School District Meritorious Hall of Fame, and the East Stroudsburg High School Hall of Fame (team award).
Judy resides in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and in her limited free time, you'll find her riding a bike, on the ski slopes, out for a walk, spending time with her pets, cheering on any of "her" Philadelphia sports teams, or...you guessed it...
...making memories with a friend.
It's all about relationship.
Ignite's Next Season
As Ignite International enters its next chapter, the mission remains unchanged.
The method is simply expanding.
In 2018, Ignite's 15th year, Judy sensed a clear direction for the future:
"The next fifteen years will be spent identifying and mentoring those who will carry this vision forward."
Today, that prompting is shaping the organization's future.
Rather than carrying the weightiest of day-to-day work, Judy sees her role evolving into a mentor of mentors and the guardian of Ignite's DNA.
The first 23 years were spent creating experiences.
The next season is about creating the leaders who create the experience."
Judy Fox
Ignite International Founder
A Legacy of Multiplication
Judy's vision has never been limited to trips, events, or programs.
Her vision has always centered on people.
Athletes.
Coaches.
Leaders.
Parents.
Communities.
Ordinary people discovering extraordinary purpose.
Her hope is that long after she is gone, countless others will continue carrying the mission forward—using their influence, their God-given talents, and their lives to bring hope to the world around them.
Because at its core, Ignite International has never simply been about sports.
It has been about helping people discover that they were created to become someone greater than they are today, belong to something bigger than themselves, and make a generational impact.
"I believe if we had Ignites all around the world, we would change the world."
Jacky Toruño Brown
Former Nicaragua National Volleyball Team Athlete
Ignite Leader
Multiplying leaders. Strengthening communities. Transforming Nations.
Through the universal language of sport.
EIN 06-1700583
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