Nuclear engineer, Pine Bluff native tapped to lead Innovation Hub
by March 7, 2018 12:49 pm 659 views
Christopher M. Jones has been named executive director and lead maker at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, a North Little Rock-based nonprofit serving creatives, makers and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Hub is part of Winrock International in Little Rock.
A Pine Bluff native, Jones holds a Ph.D. in urban studies and planning, in addition to master’s degrees in nuclear engineering and technology and policy, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to Winrock. He earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics from Morehouse College in Atlanta, which he attended on a full scholarship from NASA.
“We are especially proud to welcome Dr. Jones back to his home state of Arkansas as the new executive director of the Innovation Hub,” North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said in a press release. “We have watched the Innovation Hub revitalize the Argenta neighborhood, and we are expecting even more good things to come with Dr. Jones at the helm.”
Jones is a former assistant dean for graduate education at MIT and has 20 years of far-reaching experience in energy and infrastructure, diversity, community development and housing, according to Winrock. He has led and participated in academic research that ranges from plasma fusion and nuclear nonproliferation to the social impact of large-scale energy infrastructure systems. His experience includes an 18-month study on the future of nuclear power.
“We are delighted to welcome Chris as executive director and lead maker of the Innovation Hub,” Winrock International President and CEO Rodney Ferguson said in the press release. “His strong scientific background and phenomenal academic accomplishments, combined with his dynamic community-building skills make him a natural for this position. We know he will continue to inspire the makers of the future as he takes on the Hub’s crucial mission.”
Jones also was formerly executive director of the community development nonprofit the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston and formerly a principal at Newark, N.J.-based BCT Partners, where Jones was lead executive on numerous multimillion-dollar federal projects, according to Winrock. He has served on or supported several boards of directors and spent one year as an algebra teacher in a Boston public school.
“I am humbled and excited to start this new chapter of my life,” Jones said in the release. “The Innovation Hub, with its outstanding staff, has unlimited potential to strengthen community and further develop a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the state and beyond. I’m an engineer at heart, so am especially excited that I will be both ‘lead maker’ and ‘executive director,’ as I join forces with other creatives, entrepreneurs and technologists to ensure that the Innovation Hub continues to flourish as the premier makerspace in the region.”
Jones and wife Jerrilyn, an emergency room physician at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science, live with their three daughters in Little Rock.