Executive Director
Prof. Jones serves as the Executive Director of Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI) and is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Management.
Prior to joining Fuqua, Prof. Jones served as the Executive Director
of the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) at
Rice University where she focused on developing curricular and
co-curricular programs for students and faculty across the university.
She taught courses on Financing the Startup Venture and Design Thinking,
as well as managed the Student-lead Rice Venture Fund.
Prof. Jones co-founded Impact Engine, an investment firm with a mission
to bring more capital to a market where financial returns are linked to
positive social and environmental impacts. Impact Engine supported three
cohorts of early-stage companies through its accelerator program and is
now placing capital into seed and series A venture investments through
its second venture fund.
Prior to joining Rice, Prof. Jones was an Innovation Advisor at RTI
International, a leading nonprofit research institute based in North
Carolina, where she supported companies, governments, and
non-governmental organizations in their quest to commercialize
technology-driven new products. Sitting at the nexus of technology,
customers, and markets, Dr. Jones has deep expertise connecting
user-insights to technology commercialization pathways and business
model development and has worked on project ranging from sanitation and
energy to agriculture and health.
Prof. Jones maintains an affiliation with the Kellogg School of
Management at Northwestern University where she serves as the faculty
lead for the Emerging Markets and Social Impact cohort of the Zell
Fellows Program. Previously, Dr. Jones was the Director of Social
Entrepreneurship and a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship and
Innovation at Kellogg, where she worked with startups, nonprofits and
companies to build and finance ventures that create both financial and
social returns.
Prof. Jones has experience combining design thinking and Lean Startup practices to optimize business models. She has worked in India, East and West Africa and Latin America on agriculture, education, health, and water-focused ventures. Her contributions have been recognized by the Triangle Business Journal 40 Under 40.