A former first grade teacher in Dallas and Bryan, TX, Dr. Deneese L. Jones began her service as Professor and Dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Longwood University in 2005. A native of Dallas, Texas, she earned a Ph. D. and M. Ed. from Texas A&M University and a B. S. in Elementary Education from Texas Woman’s University. She graduated from South Oak Cliff High School in 1970 where she served as Editor of the newspaper, Bear Tracks, and was a candidate and finalist for Miss South Oak Cliff.

Dr. Jones has served as a tenured professor, Associate Dean of the Graduate School for Recruitment and Diversity and was appointed Chair of the Presidents Commission on Diversity all at the University of Kentucky. She also served as the Co-founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Academic Achievement in Learning Environments and as a researcher in University of Kentucky’s Collaborative Center for Literacy Development. In these positions, she garnered more than 2.5 million dollars in grant funding for research in literacy instruction for diverse populations.

From 1998-2001, Dr. Jones was editor of Action in Teacher Education and was appointed an American Council on Education Fellow (2002-2003) where she was hosted by the University of Kansas. While there she worked with Chancellor Robert Hemenway in projects surrounding the administrative leadership development needed for ascension to the university presidential level. Dr. Jones is co-author of Preparing Student Teachers for Pluralistic Classrooms, and edited the commemorative book, Education beyond Brown: Future Perspectives. A literacy scholar, she is widely published in the area of equity pedagogy with more than 30 refereed articles and four textbooks.

At Longwood University she has recently acquired private grant funding from the Jesse Paul DuPont Foundation ($140,000) for the development of the infrastructure of the inaugural Call Me MISTER program which recruits, prepares, and places African American males as elementary and middle grade teachers for the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the present, Virginia has less than 1% of African American males in elementary and middle grade level classrooms. Dr. Jones has, also, been instrumental in restructuring several departments within the College of Education and Human Serives that has resulted in increasing undergraduate and graduate cohorts for various programs and higher efficiency for the Office of Professional Services which serves the college with practicum and students teacher placements as well as provides licensure opportunities for teacher education students.. Dr. Jones founded the college lecture series, Sankofa, which serves the university with bi-annual lectures of diverse topics from cutting edge researchers and professionals who have represented virtually every discipline within the college. Additionally, Dr. Jones has acquired $360,000 in endowment funds for scholarships for teacher education students.

Dr. Jones is a recent recipient of Longwood University’s Chi Award of Excellence and the Longwood University 2008 Citizen Leader Award. She has, also, received three University of Kentucky Outstanding Teaching Awards, two Outstanding Service Awards from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Educators, an Outstanding Recognition Award from the Association of Teacher Education, an Outstanding Researcher Award from the Kentucky Reading Association, and a Torch of Excellence Award from the University of Kentucky Alumni Association. Dr. Jones was honored by her alma mater, TAMU, with the 1998 Most Notable Alumni Award and the 2006 Outstanding Alumni Award from Texas A&M University.

For thirty five years, Dr. Jones has been the wife of Mr. Stephen Jones. They have two adult daughters-- Stephanie who lives in Houston, TX and Monica who lives in Louisville, KY with sons, Baylen and Tyler.