Put On Your Oxygen Mask First

Candice C Jones

Candice joined the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, DC, as its President and CEO in 2017. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Chicago CRED, an organization that focuses on gun violence in Chicago. In that role, she secured greater investments for violence intervention programs as an alternative to the criminal justice system. Prior to her work with Chicago CRED, she served as Director of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, a cabinet-level state agency where she supervised operations, programming, budget matters, and communications. During her tenure, she pushed significant reforms that reduced the number of youth in state custody. She also served as a White House Fellow, managing a portfolio within the U.S. Department of Education that included developing education strategies for correctional institutions and shepherding a plan to reinstate federal Pell grants for youth and adults in custody. Earlier in her career, Candice served as a program officer with the MacArthur Foundation, where she managed a grant portfolio focused on decreasing racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system and on improving the quality of defense for indigent youth. She currently serves on the board of Cabrini Green Legal Aid, a Chicago-based civil legal service organization. Candice received her J.D. from New York University School of Law and her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.