Alethia Jones, PhD Research Associate Specialization: American Politics, Urban and Ethnic Politics Center for Policy Research ajones@albany.edu

About Professor Jones

Alethia Jones currently serves as a Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research. She was formerly an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University at Albany (SUNY), with a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. Professor Jones earned MA and PhD degrees in Political Science at Yale University (2005). She studies how public policy integrates immigrant communities into US society. Her book manuscript, From Liability to Asset: Immigrant Social Networks and the Politics of Community Banking, 1900-2000, identifies how new laws targeted immigrant social networks and transformed them into policy tools that linked immigrants to government regulated financial institutions, such as credit unions, neighborhood banks and Fannie Mae. Professor Jones has received research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Virginia, and the Center for the Study of Race, Inequality and Politics (Yale University). She served as senior research associate for the Community Renaissance Fellows Program, a HUD-funded comprehensive community development program headquartered at Yale University. Her primary teaching and research interests are in the fields of urban and ethnic politics, public policy and American political development, Professor Jones’s work blends the world of practice with research and teaching. Prior to attending Yale, she served as lead policy staff to a member of the New York City Council. She managed a policy portfolio that included health, housing, welfare and transportation policy initiatives, with attention to the impact on Brooklyn’s Caribbean immigrant population. During her graduate career her consulting and research activities included projects in Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York, New Haven, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Selected Publications

• Jones, Alethia. "Social Facts versus Social Realities in the New Millennium."
  Historical Methods: Fall 2007. Vol. 40, Number 4.
• Jones, Alethia. "Milton Magazine Profile." April 2009.

Immigration Resources

• Let’s Talk Immigration! - An interactive workshop promoting public dialogue on immigration
• BRIDGE: Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in the Global Economy: A Popular Education Resource for Immigrant and Refugee Community Organizers. Available in English, Spanish and Korean. (National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights) http://www.nnirr.org/shop/curricula.php
• Crossing Borders: Building Relationships Across Lines of Difference (by Dushaw Hocket, Center for Community Change)
• For You Were Once a Stranger: Immigration in the U.S. Through the Lens of Faith
  This comprehensive resource provides historical background, the faith perspective on immigration, and suggestions for taking action in your community. (Interfaith Worker Justice)