Van Jones

Civil rights activist and attorney

Van Jones is an American environmental advocate, civil rights activist and attorney. He is a co-founder of three successful non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. He served as the Green Jobs Advisor in the Obama White House in 2009.

Jones received his BA in Communications and Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Martin before attending Yale law school. After leaving his role within the Obama administration, Jones was elected a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress and has acted as a senior policy advisor at Green For All. He has been made a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton University in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In January 2010, Jones received the NAACP’s President’s Award, one of many accolades he has earned, including being named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. In 2009, Jones became a New York Times Bestselling author for his book The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems.