Championing athletes’ mental health and wellness

For Elijah Green (BSBA ’23), choosing the University of North Carolina was about more than playing football.

As a highly accomplished high school student-athlete and son of former NFL player Victor Green, he wanted the best combination of academics and athletics. When his college decision came down to UNC and Vanderbilt University, he considered the quality of the educational experience, the caliber of the football program, the overall culture and the opportunity to build a career beyond the field.

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Undergraduate Business Program was a major part of that equation.

“I wanted to be a part of a top business school,” Green says. “I knew that would be the best opportunity to get the knowledge and connections that I needed.”

Today, that knowledge and those connections shape Green’s work as an entrepreneur, nonprofit founder and professional football player.

Green’s paths began with a singular challenge: whether he could handle the rigor of his UNC Kenan-Flagler studies while playing Division I football at a Power Four institution.

The answer, he knew, had to be yes.

“I had confidence in my ability in academics,” Green says. “I knew what I wanted to do after football, too. I knew it was the right path to continue my education and reach my goals.’”

But that step sometimes proved difficult, even as he established his routine and balanced the demanding hours of the life of a high-performing student-athlete.

Green remembered studying late into the night for exams, sometimes remaining on campus until after 11 p.m. before waking at 5 a.m. for football practice. The key, he learned, was discipline.

“You really need to establish non-negotiables with yourself,” he says.

That discipline paid off: Green earned the Bill Koman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Academics, Athletics and Leadership in his sophomore year after he cemented his rise from a reserve player to a key focal point of the 2022 offense.

Business lessons

Green found a way to participate in one of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Global Immersion Electives. In the summer of 2023, he studied in Australia and New Zealand alongside teammates Jalen Brooks (BSBA ’23) and Christopher Holliday (BA ’24).

He had assumed his football schedule would make the immersive learning experience impossible. When the opportunity arose, however, his coaches encouraged him to go.

“It was the best experience that I’ve ever had in my life,” Green says. “I just learned so much through it.”

An especially influential classroom experience came in Entrepreneurship and Business Planning with Professor Jim Kitchen. Green learned the fundamentals of entrepreneurship: identifying a need, developing an idea and figuring out how to bring it to consumers.

He put those lessons into practice. In one competition, Green and his teammates developed a business around Drake Maye merchandise during Maye’s freshman season. Their idea generated more than $12,000 in sales in roughly two months, with proceeds benefiting Make-A-Wish. Seeing fans wearing the shirts in Kenan Stadium made the classroom lesson tangible.

“I really believe that kind of laid the foundation of, how can I use my sports platform to advocate for something very important outside of football,” Green says.

The relationship with Kitchen did not end when Green graduated. He keeps in touch with his former professor to discuss business ideas and seek advice.

He also met frequently with retired Lieutenant General John Moellering, who lectured at UNC Kenan-Flagler. Moellering met with Green and several teammates at the football facility, offering lessons about business, life and leadership.

“He’s become a great mentor for me,” Green says. “Carolina really did lay the foundation and gave me the connections.”

“Carolina really did lay the foundation.”

Personal challenge becomes a professional mission

During his time at Carolina, the pressures of being a student-athlete combined with the passing of his best friend led Green to confront his struggles with anxiety and mental health. He championed wellness for fellow athletes at Carolina, serving on the executive councils of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Faculty Athletics Committee where he advocated for the needs of student-athletes directly to University leaders.

He also led UNC’s chapter of Uplifting Athletes, helping organize a fundraiser that raised more than $7,000 for rare-disease research and honoring UNC football chaplain Mitch Mason as a Rare Disease Champion.

Green graduated early with a 3.7 GPA and went to Indiana University Bloomington to earns his master’s degree in business and play football. An entrepreneurship provided the framework to turn his passion for advocating for athletes into an organization.

In 2025, he founded Mind Over Muscle Foundation to provide schools with mental-health education and a platform designed to develop athletes’ mental-health literacy and practical tools such as journaling, gratitude exercises and guided meditation.

While building the nonprofit, he applied many skills he learned at UNC Kenan-Flagler: developing a plan, identifying the right people, building a team and turning an idea into something real.

His entrepreneurial interests extend into the energy sector as well. Through Energy 8, Green works with organizations seeking to reduce electrical costs and improve equipment efficiency. He handles outreach and marketing, facilitates meetings and developed an AI-assisted LinkedIn system to identify potential business decision-makers.

Football remains part of his story. After a minicamp with the Philadelphia Eagles, Green, a running back, is a free agent while continuing to train and pursue his next opportunity.

Success is no longer defined solely by what happens on a football field. His UNC Kenan-Flagler friendships, mentors and lessons still influence what he builds — and the people he hopes to help.

“I left the Business School, but the Business School never left me,” he says.

Green came back to UNC on Nov. 7, 2026, to host the Franklin All Nighter, which brought runners and walkers to a one-mile loop in downtown Chapel Hill. He raised funds for four local organizations — UNC Athletics’ Mental Health and Performance Psychology program, UNC Counseling and Psychological Services, Orange County’s Street Outreach, Harm Reduction and Deflection team and the Mind Over Muscle Foundation.

The idea behind running all night is simple, Green says: For people struggling with their mental health, the road can feel like a long walk through the dark, but the dawn comes faster when you keep moving together.

His foundation committed 25% of all donations from the event to the UNC Athletics’ Mental Health and Performance Psychology program, so he “can invest back into the department that changed my view of mental health when I finally spoke up about my anxiety,” Green says.

In many ways, Green found the education he was seeking when he arrived in Chapel Hill — not just preparation for a career after football, but the foundation to create one of his own.