Fellows Spotlight
The Honorable Sherri Jones
Development Director
Rural Arizona Engagement
Member, Florence Unified School District Governing Board
(San Tan Valley, 2022)
“One of the things that I think is so impressive about being in the Flinn-Brown Network is that I’m next to these incredible professionals who have doctorate degrees and all these quote-unquote-fancy titles, and they hold offices. It could be easy for me to diminish the things that I do to get myself to where I am, but more than that, it’s extremely inspiring and it’s pushed me along my journey, to continue to strive for that excellence.” — The Honorable Sherri Jones.
Originally from the East Coast, Sherri Jones’ found her path to Arizona by way of a yellow brick road studded with the promise of sunshine and a maroon and gold education. The harsh winters in New Jersey were taking a toll on her mother’s health, making Arizona’s warm climate an appealing destination for her family.
Other members of Jones’ family also headed southwest after her uncle, Herman Frazier, went to Arizona State University for track and field and went on to win gold and bronze medals in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Jones came to Arizona with her family at the end of high school and pursued a degree in family resources and human development at ASU, where she found her passion for early childhood education. And in early childhood education, she found her passion for connecting with people.
Jones, a 2022 Flinn-Brown Fellow, is a Florence Unified School District Governing Board member and development director for Rural Arizona Engagement in Pinal County.
“Even if I hold multiple other hats, which I do, my heart is really in early childhood education. I engage with the 4-year-old in people when I meet them because people want to be seen, people want to be heard, people want to feel that sense of energy that makes them feel safe,” Jones says.
“I owe such gratitude and appreciation to the field for helping me learn how to be human. It has shaped my appeal to connection and to servant leadership.”
Jones is keen to help rebuild the sense of community that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic. She utilizes her leadership roles to encourage people to remember their connections and to want them again. The residuals of pandemic isolation continue to leak into human interaction, she says. Community support systems, neighborly friendships and even communication with schools are dwindling.
The Women’s March in January 2017 sparked her serving heart after listening to then Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes urge everyone to get involved in local politics, no matter what the role may be. Jones found that role with NextGen America where she worked as a field organizer engaging adults in the 2018 midterm elections.
Between 2002 and 2017, Jones drove almost 500,000 miles around rural Arizona advocating for early childhood education while she worked for the Association for Supportive Child Care. Her unwavering love for rural Arizona and early childhood education intersected perfectly at the Florence Unified School District Governing Board, which she was elected to in 2020.
Jones has always used her voice to make sure people are reaching for network growth throughout Arizona.
“I really do walk through the world doing my best to bring people together, acknowledge people and, really, just to listen,” she says.
“Because when I get to be at the table of power, so to speak, I can say, ‘Well, where’s the support? Where’s the relationship? How are you messaging to the human and not to the systems and checks and balances? How are you meeting the human need?’”
Stepping into a new role in any political setting isn’t easy, but Jones knows that her voice as a Black woman is important. To Jones, being able to stand on a dais and be part of a school board—when her grandfather had to drop out of grade school and work in the fields to support his family—is a reminder of the trajectory that her family has taken.
“I love having the ability to bring more people into this experience of leadership who may be sitting on the sidelines like I once did thinking, ‘That’s not for me,’ especially if nobody else looks like you. If it’s been all men, we need more women of all representation. Particularly if there’s never been a Black woman,” Jones says.
“I have a duty, and I take that on. Not everybody would say that, but I do. I hold it very respectfully in terms of the power and the responsibility of being in the spaces that I get to be in and being able to advocate, to be a voice for the community.”
Book Recommendation
Each month, we feature suggestions from Fellows to create a virtual Network library about public-policy issues, the practice of leadership, professional development and other areas worth sharing. This month’s recommendation comes from the Honorable Sherri Jones.
Sherri Jones
(San Tan Valley, 2022)
by Richard Sheridan
“He [Richard Sheridan] really sells that it’s not end game to make an adjustment and to look at change as running an experiment and getting the feedback to see if it’s going to work or if it’s not going to work. He truly encourages leaning in to create a culture of joy, love, and affinity in the workplace. I I will buy this book and give it out to people as a gift because I love it so much. He’s just a truly profound speaker.”
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