Brandon Jones
Brandon Jones
Dr. Brandon Jones is a geophysics and environmental education expert. He has dedicated his career to public service and providing funding, education, and research opportunities for students. Dr. Jones worked at the EPA for over twelve years before joining the National Science Foundation. Dr. Jones has served on many boards, including the American Geophysical Union.
Dr. Brandon Jones was born in southwestern Ohio and attended Lincoln University for his undergraduate degree, where he studied biology and graduated in 1991. He began graduate school at the University of Delaware in the College of Marine Studies. He completed a Master of Science in Marine Sciences in 1994. In 1999, he returned to the University of Delaware to begin his Ph.D. In 2003, he completed a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences. Dr. Jones’s thesis was entitled Settlement of brachyuran megalopae in Delaware bay: an analysis and time series data (1994).
After completing his master’s degree, Dr. Jones worked as a Secondary Science Teacher at Prince George’s County Public Schools, where he taught for almost five years. In 2003, after earning his Ph.D., Dr. Jones joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the Fellowship Program Manager. From 2012 to 2016, Dr. Jones was also the EPA’s Assistant Center Director for Ecosystems Research.
From 2013 to 2019, Dr. Jones returned once again to his alma mater, the University of Delaware, as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. I
In 2016, Dr. Jones left the EPA and became the Program Director of Geosciences at the National Science Foundation. He is also the Program Director for Education and Broadening Participation.
Dr. Jones has contributed his expertise to several organizations. From 2015 to 2021, he was a board member of the Environmental Leadership Program and from 2017 to 2020 on the Board of Directors for the American Geophysical Union. In 2023, Dr. Jones became President-Elect of the American Geophysical Union.
Dr. Jones has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2005 United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Suzanne E. Olive Award, the University of Delaware’s Presidential Award of Outstanding Achievement in 2014, and the NASA Group Achievement Award’s GLOBE Program in 2022.
“Have a vision about what you want to be, not where you want to be. Then be flexible as to where that vision takes you” (EPA).
Brandon Jones (2023). Nsf.gov. https://www.nsf.gov/staff/staff_bio.jsp?lan=mbjones&org=OMA&from_org=OMA
Brandon Jones. (2023). Linkedin.com. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-jones-0ba93b/details/experience/
Profiles of African Americans at EPA: Brandon Jones. N.d. EPA. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/careers/profiles-african-americans…
Survey and interviews conducted by Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative staff. 2022-2023. Yale University-School of the Environment. New Haven, Connecticut.
Wikipedia Contributors. (2023, March 11). Michael Brandon Jones. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Brandon_Jones