Erin Jones | Passion for Change

October 26, 2022

Teachers can't replace parents and schools can't solve all student ills. Yet in a lot of ways, our educational system still demands these efforts from our schools.

Erin Jones has been involved in and around schools for the past 26 years. She has taught in a variety of environments and some of the most diverse communities in the nation. In this episode, we dive into her passion for change and her initiatives to help make the change a reality.

Erin received an award as the Most Innovative Foreign Language Teacher in 2007, while teaching in Tacoma and was the Washington State Milken Educator of the Year in 2008, while teaching in Spokane. She received recognition at the White House in March of 2013 as a "Champion of Change” and was Washington State PTA’s “Outstanding Educator” in 2015.

After serving as a classroom teacher and instructional coach, Erin worked as an executive for two State Superintendents. Erin left the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2012 to work in college-access at the school district level. She left her job to run as a candidate for State Superintendent and was the first Black woman to run for any state office in Washington state, a race she lost by a mere 1%.

Erin has 3 adult children – a daughter who graduated from Central Washington University and works for the Equity in Education Coalition, a son who is a second-year graduate student at USC and one who attends college and coaches high school football and rugby with her husband of 27 years, James, who is a teacher and football coach in North Thurston School District.