Stephanie Jones - '77

Stephanie J. Jones graduated from Ridgewood High School as a member of the Class of 1977. She has been the deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Transportation since January 2014. Jones received her Bachelor's Degree from Smith College. She then earned her juris doctorate from the University of Cincinnati College of Law where she was a Fellow in the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights and was on the editorial staff of the Human Rights Quarterly. She also attended Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). From 2010 until her appointment, she was President of Stephanie Jones Strategies LLC, a Washington, DC public affairs and strategic planning firm. From 2005 through 2010, Jones was Executive Director of the National Urban League Policy Institute. Prior to joining the National Urban League staff, Jones was Chief Senate Judiciary Committee Counsel to Senator John Edwards from 2002 to 2005 and Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones from 2000 to 2002. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed her to serve as Secretary Richard Riley's Regional Representative in the U.S. Department of Education (Region V), a position she held for six years. Before entering government service, Jones was an Associate Professor of Law at Northern Kentucky University's Salmon P. Chase College of Law. Inducted 2018.