Loretta Jones, MA

Founder and Executive Director of Healthy African American Families (HAAF) II
 

Loretta Jones, M.A., is the founder and Executive Director of Healthy African American Families (HAAF) II. As a "Community Gatekeeper," Loretta Jones has dedicated her entire life towards the hope and healing of community and society-at-large. Her career as a civil rights activist, health policy advocate, and social architect has spanned more than 30 years. In an effort to level the playing field for all people, Ms. Jones continues her unyielding commitment as a change agent against disparities in human health, development, and opportunity. She is a co-investigator of the NIMH UCLA/RAND Center for Research on Quality in Managed Care, the NIA UCLA Center for Health Improvement in Minority Elderly (CHIME), and the NIH Drew/UCLA Project EXPORT, as well as a recipient of numerous CDC grants and contracts. She is a member of the UCLA Institutional Review Board (IRB) for protection of human subjects and on the National Children's Study-Los Angeles Ventura County Study Center (NCS-LAVSC) Committee. In addition, she is a Community Faculty member and on the 4-Year Medical School Planning Committee at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. She is also a member of the NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Community Child Health Research Network (CCHN), and a member of the American Academy of Nursing Advisory Council. She was the lead author on an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (Jones L, Wells K, "Strategies for Academic and Clinician Engagement in Community Participatory Partnered Research." JAMA, January 24, 2007). She served as a Commissioner for the Joint Center Health Policy Institute's Dellums Commission (2005-2006) and was a Family and Youth Stakeholder Member for the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) in 2005. In 2004, Ms. Jones was honored as the first recipient of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Award for National Contribution to Minority Health Programs, Research and Surveillance - Department of Reproductive Health. She also served as a member of the Advisory Council planning NICHD's longitudinal child health study and chaired its Social Justice committee. Loretta Jones currently resides in Los Angeles, California, the area she so tirelessly serves.