Van Jones

Van Jones is the founder and executive director of Oakland’s Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Founded in 1996 and named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the Center seeks to replace the U.S. incarceration industry with youth opportunities and community-based solutions. In 2002, the Center’s “Books Not Bars Campaign” helped stop the construction of a costly and controversial “super-jail” for Oakland’s youth. Presently, the Center is working to close all of California’s scandal-plagued youth prisons and replace them with regional rehabilitation centers. Under Van’s leadership, the Center has begun to pioneer new methods of promoting the human rights agenda using music and media. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he co-founded ColorofChange.org to use the organizing power of the Internet to give black Americans and their allies a renewed and strengthened political voice. Van is also a passionate advocate for the environment and for responsible business. Van’s efforts have earned him many honors, including the Reebok International Human Rights Award, the Ashoka Fellowship, and the Rockefeller Foundation “Next Generation Leadership” Fellowship. Born in rural West Tennessee, Van graduated in 1990 from the University of Tennessee at Martin and, in 1993, from Yale Law School.