Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D.

An authoritative voice on race, gender, politics, and the production of positive social change, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever is widely regarded as one of the most engaging and informative political and social commentators in the US. Currently serving as the Executive Director of the National Council of Negro Women, the nation’s oldest organization devoted to the advancement of both civil rights and women’s rights, her work catalyzes and mobilizes some four million women of African descent within the United States and throughout the Diaspora.

Dr. Jones-DeWeever has served as the keynote speaker to the President of the United States’ Young African Leaders Forum, a featured speaker at numerous Congressional Policy Briefings, and is a frequent lecturer on college campuses nation-wide. Over the years she has developed a significant level of expertise in a wide range of areas including but not limited to the following: race, gender and the economy; electoral politics; Black women and the HIV/AIDS crisis; the racial wealth gap; race, class, gender and natural disasters; and the implications of food deserts on the health and well-being of Black America..

Dr. Jones-DeWeever’s policy perspectives have been shared through a variety of media outlets including: CNN, PBS, BET News, Voice of America Television, National Public Radio, Sirius/ XM Radio, Glamour Magazine, Pink Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and Vital Speeches of the Day. Dr. Jones-DeWeever received her Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park and serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Voices. Women’s Vote. Action Fund, the Black Leadership Forum, and the Advisory Board of Wider Opportunities for Women. She also holds the position of Affiliated Scholar with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and serves as a policy specialists with the Black Women’s Roundtable.