David R. Jones, ESQ.
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Community Service Society of New York
Honoree at the 2018 Care for Kids Gala

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. Mr. Jones has led CSS since 1986 and writes a bi-weekly column for the New York Amsterdam News and El Diario/La Prensa.

From 1983 to 1986, he served as Executive Director of the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development. Mr. Jones was Special Advisor to Mayor Edward Koch from 1979 to 1983, with responsibilities in race relations, urban development, immigration reform and education.

Mr. Jones has served on transition committees for Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He also served as a member of the Moreland Commission to investigate public corruption. In June 2016, Mr. Jones was confirmed by the State Senate to fill a city seat on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He was appointed to a blue-ribbon commission advising the Mayor’s Office on structural changes to the New York City Health + Hospitals Corporation (NYC H + H), and he is a member of the Advisory Council of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

From 1996 to 2000, Mr. 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. Mr. Jones also served on the board of NYC H + H and was Vice Chairman of the Primary Care Development Corporation.

While receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University, Mr. Jones interned for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1974. 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.