David R. Jones, Esq., is president and chief executive officer of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that promotes economic advancement and full civic participation for low-income New Yorkers.
An outspoken advocate for low-income New Yorkers, he writes bi-weekly newspaper columns in the New York Amsterdam News and El Diario/La Prensa that serve to educate the public and government officials on issues of importance to minority and poor communities.
Jones has led CSS since 1986. From 1983 to 1986, he served as executive director of the New York City Youth Bureau. He was Special Advisor to Mayor Edward Koch from 1979 to 1983 with responsibilities in race relations, urban development, immigration reform, and education.
Jones has served on transition committees for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. He was also appointed as a member of the Moreland Commission. He is Chairman of the Board of the Nation Institute, a member of the Advisory Council of the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, and board member with the Center for Community Change. Mr. Jones was recently appointed to a blue-ribbon commission advising the Mayor’s Office on structural changes to the NYC Health and Hospitals.
From 1996 to 2000, Jones was chairman of the board of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African-American managed bank in the nation. He served for 12 years on the board of trustees of Wesleyan University and is now a Trustee Emeritus. He also served on the board of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and was vice chairman of the Primary Care Development Corporation, which finances health care programs and facilities in medically underserved communities.
While receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, Jones interned for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School in 1974 and clerked for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Prior to his nonprofit and public service careers, he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He is admitted to practice law in New York State and the District of Columbia.