Jennifer Jones Austin
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Jennifer Jones Austin (' Jennifer Barkley Jones; born ) is an American civil rights and social policy advocate and lawyer, author and talk show host, nonprofit CEO and executive, and former government official.


Early life

Jones Austin was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Baptist preacher William Augustus Jones Jr. and Natalie Barkley Jones (née. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
, serving as President of the New York Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and President of its economic justice arm, Operation Breadbasket, locally and nationally. Her father was also a founding member and President of the
Progressive National Baptist Convention The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), incorporated as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., is a Baptist denomination emphasizing civil rights and social justice. The headquarters of the Progressive National Baptist Co ...
, which was formed in 1961 when conservative Baptists considered vocal advocacy for civil rights as too radical and founding President of the National Black Pastors Conference. Jones Austin graduated from
Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
, and a
Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
degree from
Fordham University School of Law Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...
, graduating in 1993. She earned a
Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in Management and Policy at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, graduating in 1997.


Career

Jones Austin is CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), an anti-poverty, policy and advocacy organization. Prior to joining FPWA, Jones Austin served as Senior Vice President of the United Way of New York City; the City of New York’s first Family Services Coordinator; Deputy Commissioner for the NYC Administration for Children’s Services; Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer; and Vice President for LearnNow/Edison Schools, Inc. Jones Austin chairs the NYC Racial Justice Commission. She has chaired the Mayoral Transition for Bill de Blasio, the NYC Procurement Policy Board, the NYC Board of Correction, where she presided over the promulgation of rules to end solitary confinement; the NYS Supermarket Commission; and the Community Engagement for Brooklyn District Attorney Gonzalez’s Justice 2020 Initiative. She was a lead advisor for the NYPD Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.  She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of National Action Network; member of the Feerick Center for Social Justice Advisory Board; member of the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior Advisory Board at Harvard University; and member of the COVID-19 “Roll Up Your Sleeves” Task Force created to ensure vaccine information and equitable access in Black and Brown communities. She was the scholar in residence at Nyack College and Alliance Theological Seminary Center for Racial Reconciliation (CRR) from 2020 to 2022. Jones Austin co-hosts WBLS’ “Open Line”, guest hosts weekly the nationally syndicated radio program, “Keep’n It Real with Rev. Al Sharpton”, and has appeared on the cable show, “Brooklyn Savvy”. She is a returning guest and contributor on the “Karen Hunter Show”.   Jones Austin is the author of ''Consider It Pure Joy'', the account of her year-long battle with a sudden, life threatening illness. She is the editor of ''God in The Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited,'' the re-release of her father, William Augustus Jones Jr.’s work deconstructing the “system” of racism, capitalism and militarism.


Personal life

Jones Austin is married to Shawn V. Austin, an insurance executive. They have two children together, daughter Kennedy (born 1997) and son Channing (born 2001). In 2009 Jones Austin was diagnosed with
leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
and given no chance of survival without a bone marrow transplant. Unable to find a match in the National Marrow Donor Registry, she and her husband marshaled their network, and were able to add 13,000 potential donors of color to the
National Marrow Donor Program NMDP, formerly known as the National Marrow Donor Program and Be The Match, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operates a registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood ...
registry in 13 weeks. She never got a donor, but she discovered that a cord blood transplant using the
stem cells In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...
from 2 African-American male babies’ umbilical cords was a viable alternative, and she was successfully transplanted in 2010. Jones Austin and her family attend Bethany Baptist Church, in
Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Bedford–Stuyvesant ( ), colloquially known as Bed–Stuy, is a neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Bedford–Stuyvesant is bordered by Flushing Avenue to the north (bordering Williamsburg), Classon ...
, where her father was minister for 43 years. Her memoir "Consider It Pure Joy", chronicling her search for a bone marrow donor, was published in 2018.


Awards

In 2016, the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
gave Jones Austin the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, for her ongoing work in social advocacy.


External links


Consider it Pure Joy

"There's an Education Crisis For Our Children!"


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Jennifer Barkley Jones 1969 births Living people Rutgers University alumni Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service alumni Fordham University School of Law alumni Criminal justice reform in the United States Criminal justice reform American women memoirists