Kerri-Ann Jones

Kerri-Ann Jones is the current United States Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, having assumed office in August 2009.

Biography

Kerri-Ann Jones was educated at Barnard College, receiving a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1975. After graduating from Barnard, she worked at Rockefeller University as an assistant for research in immunology and developmental biology. She then became a graduate student at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, receiving her Ph.D. in 1985. For her doctoral work, she studied the effects of stress on protein expression and metabolism, using nuclear magnetic resonance.

In 1985, Jones won a Science Engineering and Diplomacy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She then spent a year in New Delhi as the Biotechnology Advisor of the United States Agency for International Development there.

Returning to the U.S., Jones worked as an independent consultant. In 1996, President of the United States Bill Clinton nominated Jones to be Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and, after Senate confirmation, she held this post until 1999. She also served on the United States National Security Council as the Senior Director for Science and Technology Affairs. In 2000, she joined the United States Department of Defense's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research as Director for the state of Maine. In 2002, she moved to the National Science Foundation as Director of the Office of International Science and Engineering. She left that post in 2005 to work as an independent consultant.

In June 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Jones to be Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. After Senate confirmation, she was sworn into office on August 20, 2009.

References

• Profile from the State Department