Diane A. Jones

Diane Auer Jones recently retired from a thirty-year career as an educator, scientist, administrator, and public policy official.  Although she began her career as a nursing assistant, upon completion of undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology and applied molecular biology, she worked as a molecular biology research and later as the founding director of an EPA-certified analytical chemistry laboratory.  Through an adjunct faculty position at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), she realized that working with students was her true passion and she joined the full-time faculty at CCBC.  Over the course of her career, her work in higher education also included leadership positions at Princeton University, The Washington Campus and Career Education Corporation.  Despite her passion for teaching, after serving as a program director at the National Science Foundation, Diane’s career focus shifted to science and education policy.  She subsequently served as a professional staffer and acting staff director for the Research Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology and as the deputy to the associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  She was nominated by President George W. Bush, and confirmed by the Senate, to serve as the assistant secretary for post-secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education.  She returned to the U.S. Department of Education to conclude her career, serving as the principal deputy undersecretary delegated the duties of undersecretary during the Donald J. Trump administration.