Jaci McCormack grew up on the Nez Perce Reservation outside of Lewiston, Idaho. She fell in love with basketball early on and earned a scholarship to play for Illinois State University, where her team competed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. After her college career, Jaci was inspired to return home and give back to her community. She served as the Deputy Executive Director for the Nez Perce Tribe, as well as the Youth Prevention Director, building deep relationships with tribal and community partners.

In 2015, Jaci founded Rise Above, a non-profit organization that gives Native American youth the skills and resilience to overcome their circumstances and write their own futures. As the CEO of Rise Above, Jaci leads the organization in its mission to empower youth through a variety of programs including sports, education, financial literacy, prevention skills, and mentorship, using prevention strategies that will spark change in people’s lives.
 
Jaci attracted an incredible group of engaged and like-minded partners and donors across the country who believed in Rise Above’s mission to empower Native American youth, including over 30 tribes, investors, prevention advocates, sports legends, and hall-of-famers, and Hollywood stars including Three Time NBA Hall of Famer, Lenny Wilkens and Award-Winning Actor Danny Glover. In 2024 Rise Above established a formal partnership with the Seattle Storm to increase basketball opportunities for BIPOC, low-income, and historically underserved youth, with a focus on the Native community in Seattle and Washington State.

Jaci’s life story will be the subject of an upcoming feature film, produced by Danny Glover, Preston Holmes and Lenny Wilkens. The screenplay was written by Erica Trembly, an award- winning native writer. The film is set for production in 2025 with a projected release in 2026.

In 2022, Jaci was invited to be a presenter and panelist at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and she was appointed by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell to serve on Seattle's first Indigenous Advisory Council. She is also the recipient of the 2024 Seattle Sports Commission Sports Equity and Inclusion Award.