When the Game Is on the Line, Give the Ball to Maria Jackson: Meet the 2026 Turnbull Game Changer Award Winner

When the moment is biggest, the pressure is highest, and the game is on the line, Maria Jackson is exactly where you want to go.

She is prepared. She is consistent. And time after time, she delivers.

The WNFC is proud to recognize Texas Elite’s Maria Jackson as the recipient of the 2026 Turnbull Game Changer Award. 

The Turnbull Game Changer Award honors the legacy of TeShaura “Bull” Turnbull, a dominant running back and linebacker who played football with extraordinary strength, heart, and fearlessness. Bull was also known for her kindness, humor, generosity, and ability to uplift everyone around her, and was the heartbeat of her team playing with an incredible amount of heart every time she stepped on the field.

Following her tragic passing in 2018, this award was established to recognize athletes who reflect her tenacity, leadership, love for others, and game-changing impact on and off the field.

Maria Jackson has spent her career embodying that spirit.

Her 2026 season ended with three major honors: Eastern Conference Playoff Tournament Offensive MVP, Turnbull Game Changer Award winner, and IX Cup Championship Offensive MVP. Those achievements are the latest additions to a remarkable football résumé that includes the 2022 IX Cup Championship MVP award, 2023 WNFC Offensive Player of the Year, 2024 Western Conference Playoff Tournament Offensive MVP, and two appearances with the U.S. National Team.

Long before she became one of the most dependable playmakers in women’s football, Jackson was building that same reputation on the basketball court.

As an only child raised by her mother, DeRien Jackson, in Middlefield, Ohio, a small rural town approximately 30 miles east of Cleveland, Jackson grew up playing every sport and neighborhood game she could find. Basketball became her first organized sport in seventh grade. Inspired by Michael Jordan and the emergence of the WNBA, she spent countless hours shooting in her driveway and at the courts in the center of town.

That work turned her into one of the best basketball players in Cardinal High School history. During her junior year, she scored a school-record 42 points in a single game, a record that still stands. As a senior, she averaged 20.6 points and 6.1 steals per game, earning All-Ohio honors. She went on to play four years of college basketball at Case Western Reserve University and was inducted into her high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2021.

When her college basketball career ended, Jackson found football almost by accident. She joined an adult recreational coed league in Cleveland as a way to make friends and remain active. That led to contact flag football, traveling tournaments, and eventually women’s tackle football, where she won multiple league awards, including offensive player of the year. She joined the Texas Elite in 2018 and continued establishing herself as the player her team could trust when everything was at stake.

Her excellence, however, has never been limited to athletics.

Jackson graduated from Cardinal High School as class valedictorian, becoming the first woman of color to earn the distinction, while also serving as president of the National Honor Society. She later became the first person in her family to earn a college degree, completing a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Along the way, she continued breaking barriers as one of the few, and, in some classes, the only woman in her field.

While working full-time at General Electric, she returned to school part-time and earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Biomechanics. Her decision to study a second engineering discipline reflected the curiosity and strategic thinking she brings to everything she does: Jackson wanted to understand how electrical and mechanical engineers could work together more effectively while exploring her interest in electromechanical prosthetic systems.

Today, Jackson is a Senior Program Manager in Philips’ Precision Diagnosis division. She leads global, cross-functional teams working to reduce supply-chain risks and identify cost-saving opportunities for ultrasound and computed tomography imaging products. Before joining Philips, she spent 14 years at General Electric developing, maintaining, and improving RF coils used in MRI systems. In 2025, she added Project Management Professional to her list of credentials.

Jackson is also helping create opportunities for the next generation. For the past four years, she has coached high school girls’ flag football in Ohio. She currently serves as an assistant coach at Hathaway Brown School, which completed a 10-0 regular season and earned one of only 16 playoff bids in northern Ohio.

Through a coaches’ leadership board working with the Cleveland Browns, Jackson has also helped strengthen girls’ flag football as it moves toward full sanctioning by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Serving as a rules expert, she has contributed to the state rulebook, assisted coaches and officials with interpretations, and helped maintain quality across the league.

That is what makes Maria Jackson a true game changer.

She changes games with the ball in her hands, but her impact reaches far beyond the scoreboard. She solves problems, connects people, creates opportunities, and raises the standard everywhere she goes. She brings the same intelligence, discipline, and relentless preparation to engineering, coaching, and leadership that she brings to championship football.

Greatness is not one spectacular moment. It is the ability to show up, again and again, prepared to deliver for the people counting on you. 

When the game is on the line, Maria Jackson is the answer.