The Mind Trust promotes Patrick Jones to Senior Vice President of Leadership and Equity
Jones will lead the implementation of the organization’s racial equity priorities and commitments
Indianapolis – (July 9, 2020) – The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit, has announced the promotion of Patrick Jones to Senior Vice President of Leadership and Equity. He will join the organization’s leadership team.
“Since his first day at The Mind Trust, Patrick has been a champion of our diversity, equity, and inclusion work. He has a deep understanding of our country’s history of racism and oppression, is a well-respected community leader, and has a track record of working with and pushing our team to ensure we are relentless in our work on behalf of our city’s students,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust. “He is well-positioned to build impactful partnerships and initiatives that move The Mind Trust and our city toward antiracist action.”
“For over 400 years, this country has been operating on a fraction of its capacity, and until we address the debilitating issue of racial injustice, we will never meet our full potential, which means our children, our future, and our humanity are all in jeopardy,” said Patrick Jones, Senior Vice President of Leadership and Equity. “I am excited to take on this work with The Mind Trust to usher our community into a reimagined future where all of our citizens get to realize their innate brilliance.”
The Mind Trust is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in all we do to ensure present and future educational success for all students in Indianapolis. Upholding these principles is critical for staff, Fellows, community stakeholders, and partners to spark radical systemic change. The organization recognizes the past and continued existence of institutional racism, discrimination, privilege, and oppression in our education system and society at-large, in particular its adverse effects on students of color.
In this newly created role, Jones will lead the implementation of the organization’s racial equity priorities and commitments. Over the last 18 months, The Mind Trust worked to analyze its efficacy and ability in acting as an antiracist organization. It established an internal, cross-functional DEI committee to help lead internal work.
The committee established a guiding statement and four commitments The Mind Trust will look toward when determining investments, making decisions, and planning for the future. The Mind Trust commits to pursuing antiracism by:
Creating policies, programs, and opportunities internally and externally that equitably redistribute power and control in our community;
Eliminating the predictability of outcomes associated with race or other identity markers through our work for our city’s students and our staff;
Reflecting on and evaluating the impact of our work by engaging our students, families, and communities; and
Empowering and elevating current and upcoming leaders of color by investing in them through leveraging our institutional power, privilege, resources, and access.
The Mind Trust’s board of directors recently voted to codify racial equity as an organizational priority, expanding staffing and budget resources to move its antiracism commitments forward.
“I am proud of the board’s unanimous decision to make racial equity one of The Mind Trust’s central priorities. We cannot achieve our goal of providing all kids with a quality education without addressing the systemic racism that exists in our cities and schools,” said Jim Schumacher, The Mind Trust’s Board Chair. “We look forward to Patrick’s leadership and know it will positively impact students, families, educators, and education organizations across the city.
Previously, Jones served as Senior Director of School Incubation and led The Mind Trust’s School Fellowships and pathways for supporting the launch of new, high-quality schools in Indianapolis. In this role, Jones supported the launch of 13 schools that will serve 5,600 students at scale. Under his leadership, every Fellow developed a DEI plan prior to launching their schools. He will continue to support school leaders who have received The Mind Trust’s Innovation School Fellowship and Charter School Fellowship. Additionally, Jones established MelanatED Leaders, which builds a powerful community of education leaders of color across Indianapolis to inspire, educate, and edify each other in leadership. The initiative currently supports over 100 leaders from across the city.
Prior to joining The Mind Trust in 2018, Jones served as Director of Secondary Schools for Tindley Accelerated Schools, where he coached principals and oversaw the development of instructional systems at the Indianapolis-based network of six charter schools. He also served as a principal and mathematics teacher within the Tindley Accelerated Schools network. Jones holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Fisk University and an M.A. in Curriculum from California State Dominguez Hills. He is pursuing an Ed.D. in organizational leadership from Marian University.
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About The Mind Trust
The Mind Trust is an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit that works to build a system of schools that gives every student in Indianapolis, no exceptions, access to a high-quality education. The Mind Trust does this by building a supportive environment for schools through policy and community engagement, empowering talented, diverse educators to launch new schools, and providing existing schools with the support they need to hire world-class talent and achieve excellence. Since 2006, The Mind Trust has supported the launch of 37 schools, 13 education nonprofit organizations, and has helped place more than 1,500 teachers and school leaders in Indianapolis classrooms. More information can be found at themindtrust.org.