Aranthan Steve Jones 2008

Aranthan Steve Jones II

BS Sociology and Anthropology ’99  
Washington, D.C.

Aranthan Steve Jones II (AJ) is on Washington’s watchlist: One of Ebony magazine’s 30 National Leaders Under 30 and one of The Hill newspaper’s top 35 congressional staffers under 35, he has been identified widely as a young congressional staffer with a future as a national policy leader.

And the future has been coming quickly for Jones, who was named policy director for U.S. House of Representatives Majority Whip James Clyburn when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. Clyburn identified Jones for the post after the youngest African American chief of staff on Capitol Hill earned a reputation as Congress’ “point man” on issues of health disparity elimination policy, health care quality and finance policy, and public health policy. Jones led Hurricane Katrina recovery policy efforts for the U.S. House of Representatives. He continues to provide leadership on health policy issues to the Congressional Minority Caucuses.

In 2007, Jones was inducted into the prodigious Stennis Congressional Staff Fellowship for the 110th Congress. In spring 2008, he was inducted into the Hanns Seidel Memorial Foundation fellowship program. He has served as an adviser to more than 15 policy-related Congressional Member Organizations; worked internationally in Nigeria, South Africa, and France; and lectured extensively on a variety of policy issues as well as African American political theory. Jones began his congressional career in 2001 as health policy director for the Congressional Black Caucus.

Jones is married to ISU alumna Oluwatomi Ruth Fadeyi-Jones ’99.