Van Jones

Media commentator, entrepreneur and activist Van Jones was born on September 20, 1968 to Loretta Jean Kirkendoll and Willie Anthony Jones in Jackson, Tennessee. He received his B.S. degree in communications and politics from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1990 and his J.D. degree from Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut in 1993.

Jones established the Bay Area PoliceWatch in 1995 and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in 1996. In 2003, he served as the statewide grassroots director for Ariana Huffington in the California gubernatorial recall election. Then, in 2006, Jones and James Rucker co-founded Color of Change. He launched the Green for All NGO in 2007 and championed the 2007 Green Jobs Act. In 2008, he helped establish a “Green Jobs Corps in Oakland.” Under the Obama Administration, Jones served as the special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He went on to become a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and received appointments at Princeton University as a distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the School of Public and International Affairs, in 2010. He founded the Rebuild the Dream non-profit in 2011 and Dream Corps (now known as Dream.org) in 2014. Jones also launched the #YesWeCode and #cut50 initiatives in 2015. He co-founded the Advocates for Opioid Recovery with former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 2016. In 2018, Jones helped pass the FIRST STEP act. He joined the leadership of The B Team non-profit in 2021, and in 2023, Jones became the founder and CEO of the Dream Machine Innovation Lab.

In 2012, Jones was hired as a host and correspondent for CNN. The following year, Jones co-hosted CNN’s Crossfire with Newt Gingrich, Stephanie Cutter, and S.E. Cupp. He launched The Messy Truth in 2016 and The Messy Truth with Van Jones in 2017 on CNN. The Van Jones Show on CNN began airing in 2018. Jones created The Redemption Project with Van Jones in 2019 and co-founded Rapport.Co with Tadzio Smith in 2022. Jones is the author of several books including The Green Collar Economy, Rebuild the Dream, and Beyond the Messy Truth.

Jones joined the Environmental Media Association board in 2015 and the JPB Foundation (now the Freedom Together Foundation) board in 2017. He became a member of the Perelman Performing Arts Center board in 2021.

Jones has received numerous awards for his accomplishments including a Webby Award for The Messy Truth and an Emmy Award for The Messy Truth VR Experience with Van Jones. In 2022, Jones was the first recipient of Jeff Bezos’ Courage & Civility Award.

Jones currently resides in Los Angeles, California. He has four children, Cabral and Mattai Carter and Zenani and Neo Zamacona.

Van Jones was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 31, 2025.