Dr. Metzler provides strategic thought leadership on systems, resources, and processes that help organizations optimize performance, enhance resilience, and sustain readiness in their leaders and teams. He focuses primarily on developing a culture of coaching to support human flourishing throughout any organizational structure.
As Vice President of Organizational Performance for HigherEchelon, Dr. Metzler leverages his subject matter expertise and operations experience to lead business development in human capital solutions in federal and commercial markets. In this role, he authors proposals and statements of work, designs evidence-based performance interventions and workshops, and leads end-to-end project delivery while cultivating a bench of expert coaches and facilitators to serve growing accounts. Before this endeavor, he served as Senior Director of Human Performance for Magellan Federal where he collaborated with C-level executives, product and instructional designers, applied psychologists, and marketing professionals to conceptualize, develop, and launch a coaching product that serves both commercial and federal markets. He served 10 years in direct sport psychology support of Soldiers and Leaders via the Army Center for Enhanced Performance, Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, and Army Resilience Directorate contracts, where he and his team grew “cognitive performance” positions by over 500% between 2010 and 2020 through deep recruitment strategies, content integration and expansion, change management and professional development, and quality assurance process development. He introduced principles of self-determination theory, individual zones of optimal functioning, mental contrasting and implementation intentions, and prosocial behavior that have been implemented through approximately 500,000 training and coaching engagements each year across the United States Army. This work earned the 2026 American Psychological Association (APA) Division 47 Distinguished Contributions to Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology in the Public Interest Award.
He is a Past President and Fellow of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and former Chair of the Council for Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC). He has served on the American Psychological Association’s Advocacy Coordinating Committee, Coalition for the Psychology of High Performance, and Committee for the Advancement of General Applied Psychology. He is also Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Science. A recognized keynote speaker, Dr. Metzler has recently delivered keynote addresses for the Community of Human and Organizational Learning Annual Conference, Major League Baseball’s Mental Health & Performance Meeting, and the APA Annual Convention.
Dr. Metzler’s breadth of expertise and experience across military, sport, and corporate domains afforded him the unique opportunity to provide feedback on the Surgeon General’s Workplace Mental Health & Wellbeing framework prior to its launch in October 2022. As a CMPC, Jon has extensive experience providing direct performance psychology consultation to teams and athletes representing many different sports of various competitive levels, including intercollegiate athletes, Olympians, Paralympians, and professional athletes.
He holds three bachelor’s degrees from Concordia University–Portland, an M.A. in Sport Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Kinesiology from The Pennsylvania State University.