stephanie j. jones,
president
Stephanie J. Jones brings to the Nathaniel R. Jones Foundation decades of experience as a nonprofit executive, policy expert, thought leader and senior-level government official in a career devoted to “bridging the gaps” that separate people, communities and ideas.
A skilled attorney, activist and writer, Stephanie was recently a lead author and editor of the Report by the House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack on the Capitol. For the past several years, she has been a key consultant to the NAACP, directing the national organization’s Voter Protection legal effort and providing other strategic guidance to the president and senior staff.
Stephanie recently served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Chief of Staff, Senior Counselor to the Secretary and Chief Opportunities Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation. In these roles, Stephanie advised Secretary Anthony Foxx on an array of issues and ensured that all of the Department’s transportation infrastructure decisions and funded projects connect people to opportunities, create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, and are responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people they impact. In this role, she directed priority initiatives, including Ladders of Opportunity, LadderSTEP, My Brother’s Keeper, Every Place Counts, and was part of the core senior leadership team that managed more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion budget.
From 2014 to 2016, Stephanie also served at the Secretary’s request in a dual capacity as the Acting Director of USDOT’s Departmental Office of Civil Rights. In that role, she oversaw the Department’s equal opportunity programs across USDOT’s 10 Operating Administrations, including Title VI, ADA and language access compliance and enforcement, Environmental Justice, and the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, which guarantees small businesses owned by women and minorities a fair opportunity to compete for billions of dollars of federally-funded transportation contracts across the country.
From 2010 until her appointment to USDOT, Stephanie ran a small business, Stephanie Jones Strategies, LLC, a public affairs and strategic planning firm devoted to empowering clients to increase productivity and profitability by improving diversity, expanding communication and engaging with external partners and communities.
Before becoming a small business owner, Stephanie served for five years as the Executive Director of the National Urban League Policy Institute, the Urban League’s research, policy and advocacy arm. She reorganized and re-branded the Policy Institute into a nationally recognized and highly regarded think tank and advocacy center. Among other things, Stephanie enhanced the organization’s strategic relationships, invigorated the its grassroots advocacy, developed The Opportunity Compact, the organization’s game-changing policy agenda, put the Policy Institute on solid financial footing through her prolific fundraising and sound financial management, and transformed the annual State of Black America into a cutting edge, national-distributed publication featuring such authors and contributors as Barack Obama, Dorothy Height and Martin Luther King, III.
During this time, Stephanie also grew the NUL’s Legislative Policy Conference into an enormously influential annual event that expanded the organization’s public engagement and netted more than $2 million in sponsorships.
Stephanie also conceived, conducted and wrote the groundbreaking study Sunday Morning Apartheid study, which triggered a significant and measurable increase in the on-air racial diversity of network and cable news programming. Her essays and commentary on public policy, civil rights, and social justice have been featured in The Washington Post, Salon, and other publications.
From 2002 until 2005, Stephanie served as Chief Judiciary Committee Counsel to Senator John Edwards, advising him on his priority issues, including judicial nominations, civil rights and liberties, and homeland security. She worked closely with the Senator in the development of his anti-poverty, civil rights and urban agendas and was a senior advisor during his 2004 presidential and vice presidential campaigns. Before working for Senator Edwards, Stephanie was Chief of Staff to the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio.
From 1994 until 2000, Stephanie was an appointee in the Clinton Administration, serving as Secretary’s Regional Representative in the U.S. Department of Education, where she was the Administration’s education point person for a six-state region. During this time, she also extensively traveled with President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, coordinating scores of events and domestic and international trips, including the President’s state visits to Africa, Europe, Asia, and the First Lady’s Save Our Treasures Tour.
Before entering government service, Stephanie was an Associate Professor of Law at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law, where she taught Civil and Criminal Procedure, Civil Rights Law, Entertainment Law, and Trial Advocacy. Stephanie has also served on the adjunct faculty of Northwestern University School of Law and practiced law with the firm Graydon, Head & Ritchey in Cincinnati. Prior to her legal career, Stephanie was a staff reporter at the Cincinnati Post and the personal assistant to Lionel Richie and the Commodores.
Stephanie earned her B.A. from Smith College and her J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she was a Fellow in the Urban Morgan Institute of Human Rights. She also attended Tuskegee University as an exchange student.