This is part of WTOP’s continuing coverage of people making a difference from our community authored by Stephanie Gaines-Bryant. Read more of that coverage.
Shirley Jones calls herself a “civil rights baby” who admired the foot soldiers of the movement. The Birmingham, Alabama, native says she wanted to continue their important work.
“I walked into the halls of Georgetown Law School knowing that I wanted to walk out a public servant,” Jones said.
Jones not only became a public servant in D.C., she’s now the national president of Blacks In Government (BIG), a national nonprofit with the goal of advocating for equal opportunity and professional development for Black government employees on all levels.
In May, Jones will celebrate her 35th year with the Government Accountability Office, of which she is the first African American woman to be appointed to the position of Managing Associate General Counsel within the agency’s Office of General Counsel.
She credits Blacks in Government with helping hone her leadership skills.
“My path to both the senior executive service and to national president is because I learned my leadership skills in BIG,” Jones said.
Jones said that in the 1970s the government wasn’t the model employer that it strives to be today.
“It wasn’t necessarily welcoming women and African Americans in 1975 with open arms and equal pay,” she said.
Jones said the relationship between BIG and government agencies began as an adversarial one because they were trying to get the agencies to “do what needed to be done.”
But now, she said, times have changed.
To that point, she referenced President Joe Biden’s executive order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in the federal workforce as a positive step in the right direction.
Jones said she was also attracted to the nonprofit because of its youth programs, such as Now Generation which provides special programs for employees under 40, and Future Leaders in America’s Government, which is aimed at high school and college students.
“We’re trying to do everything we can so that our young people want to be public servants,” Jones said.
Jones said sometimes the most difficult thing for a young person entering a government position is “learning the culture,” and that’s why employee resource organizations like BIG are still necessary.
These programs help employees succeed in a number of ways, she said. First, they partner with agencies to develop strategies to ensure that diversity is appreciated and that employees have the tools they need to succeed.
Second, they conduct a national training conference each year and hold conferences throughout the year to make sure government employees are properly trained and mentored.
Jones, who has been serving as president since January 2021, said she’s “living out her childhood dreams” of working for two organizations whose values align with her own — values that include accountability, integrity and responsibility.
