Joseph L. Jones, founding executive director of the Social Justice Initiative at Philander Smith College and a 2013-14 American Council on Education Fellow, will spend his spring 2014 fellowship at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the university said.
Established in 1965, the program is designed to build leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing senior faculty and administrators for positions in college and university administration. Fifty fellows were nominated by the presidents or chancellors of their institutions and selected this year in a national competition for the program.
The fellows participate in administrative activities and learn about an issue of benefit to their nominating institution.
Jones’ learning goals are to study how administrators communicate and execute the school’s mission and to observe different leadership styles and administrative systems. He will also assess the way a university engages community nonprofit groups, as well as local and state government and service agencies.
“Because UALR has mastered several of these areas, it can uniquely meet my learning goals as I shadow senior leadership and observe operational procedures and academic programs,” Jones said in a news release.
Jones said his interest in working with UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson and his executive team stemmed in part from a desire to learn more about UALR’s Carnegie Community Engagement Elective Classification.
Jones received his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Philander Smith College and his master’s degree and doctorate in political science from Clark Atlanta University.
He secured fellowships in 2010 at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University and the Black Panther Party Research Project at Stanford University.
In 2012, his colleagues in the National Conference of Black Political Scientists awarded Jones the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Service Award. Jones also serves as a board member on the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance and the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 08/17/2013