Jennifer Jones Austin

Jennifer Jones Austin (née Jennifer Barkley Jones; born 1967/1968) is the CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.

Early life

Jones Austin was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Baptist preacher Rev. William Augustus Jones Jr. and Natalie Barkley Jones (nee. Brown), the corporate arts-curator for American Telephone & Telegraph. She was raised in a family active in the American civil rights movement, her father being a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., joining King in the 1961 formation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention when conservative Baptists considered vocal advocacy for civil rights as too radical.[1]

She graduated from Rutgers University, then earned a Juris Doctor (law) degree from Fordham University School of Law, graduating in 1993.[2] She later earned a Master's in Management and Policy at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, graduating in 1997.[3][4]

Career

Over the first 20 years of her legal and social advocacy career, Jones Austin served as Vice President for LearnNow/Edison Schools Inc., was Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief for Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer. She next served as Deputy Commissioner for the New York City Administration for Children's Services.

Jones Austin was appointed New York City’s first family services coordinator by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and was responsible for leading several early education and juvenile justice, child welfare, health and domestic violence survivor initiatives.[5] She then served as senior vice president of United Way of New York City. In this role, she implemented and spearheaded program and policy improvements in education, financial stability and health for low-income individuals.

Jones Austin became the CEO of Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) in 2012, where she has led the agency and sector in securing a minimum wage increase for all human services nonprofit workers, child care salary parity, and overall increased funding for services for New Yorkers in need, among other critical wins. In November 2013, Jones Austin led the transition team for newly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio.,[6] and the City’s Full Day Universal Pre-Kindergarten redesign.

Mayor de Blasio later appointed Jones Austin in 2020 as the board chair of the New York City Department of Correction, and subsequently announced with her the City’s aim to end solitary confinement during his tenure.

Following the May 25, 2020, killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, protests in New York City demanded reform of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). In addition to other reforms enacted by the city over the summer, Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea appointed three leaders from large non-profit community support and advocacy groups in the city, including Jones Austin, as co-sponsors of the Police Reform and Reinvention Commission.[6] The Reform Commission held a series of Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Listening Sessions throughout October, which they will use to review, analyze and provide advice to New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.

Personal life

Jones Austin is married to Shawn V. Austin, an insurance executive.[7] They have two children together, daughter Kennedy (born 1997) and son Channing (born 2002).[7] The family lives in an antebellum colonial in Lefferts Manor Historic District, a Brooklyn neighborhood close to Prospect Park, which her parents purchased in 1978 and she and her husband then secured from them in 2001.

In 2009 Jones Austin was diagnosed with leukemia and given no chance of survival without a bone marrow transplant. Unable to find a match among the 8 million donors in the National Marrow Donor Registry, she and her husband marshaled their extensive, nationwide network, and with her husband leading family and friends they were able to add 13,000 potential donors of color to the National Marrow Donor Program registry in just 13 weeks. Since that time, more than 100 people having received transplants from donors who joined the registry to be a donor for Jennifer. She never got a donor, but her discovered that a cord blood transplant using the stem cells from 2 African-American male babies’ umbilical cords was a viable alternative, and she was successfully transplanted in 2010.[8]

Jones Austin and her family attend Bethany Baptist Church, in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where her father was minister for 43 years.[8]

Her memoir "Consider It Pure Joy", chronicling her search for a bone marrow donor, was published in 2018.[9]

Awards

Jones Austin is the recipient of numerous awards including four from her three alma maters. In 2016, the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University gave her the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, for her ongoing work in social advocacy.[3]

References
  1. Martin, Douglas (2006-02-08). "The Rev. William A. Jones, Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 71". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  2. "ENGAGEMENTS; Shawn V. Austin, Jennifer B. Jones". The New York Times. 1993-08-29. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  3. "NYU Wagner alumna Jennifer Jones Austin Receives 2016 MLK Humanitarian Award". Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  4. "Speaker Bio – Jennifer Jones Austin". Praxis Connections, LLC. Archived from the original on 2016-04-02. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  5. Irwin, Demetria (2015-10-22). "Jennifer Jones Austin: A survivor with a purpose". New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  6. Murphy, Jarrett (2020-10-22). "Leader of De Blasio's New NYPD Reform Commission Speaks Out". City Limits. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  7. Hartocollis, Anemona (2013-11-13). "Experience has Taught Jones Austin the Power of Community". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  8. Booth, Stephanie. "Two New Born Babies Saved My Life" (PDF). Dr. Oz The Good Life. No. January/February 2015. pp. 34–37 – via State University of New York Upstate Medical University.
  9. Jones Austin, Jennifer (2018-02-13). Consider It Pure Joy. Church Online, LLC. ISBN 978-1-940786-61-2 – via Google Books.
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