Valerie Jones
2023-24 Aspen Presidents Fellow
Dr. Valerie Jones serves as president of the largest of eight Lone Star College campuses, LSC-CyFair, having served as the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the system office. LSC-CyFair supports nearly 23,000 students through university transfer and workforce programs.
Prior to moving to the Houston area, she served for six years as the vice president for instruction at Odessa College when they receivedAspen Institute Rising Star Awards in 2017 and 2019, and the 2018 Achieving the Dream Leah Meyer Austin Award for transformative student success outcomes. Full-scale adoption of instructional transformation, including migration to 8-week terms, institutionalization of a First-Year Faculty Experience, creation of an Open Education Resources degree, and guided pathways work led to record-setting course completion and course success rates. This work eliminated historic disparities across modalities, genders, races, and ethnicities in multiple areas.
Her dedication to equitable outcomes for college students continues with the creation of iBelong at LSC-CyFair and prior leadership for design and implementation of LSC’s Commitment to Online Resources and Equity focused on eliminating disparities by modality and race/ethnicity in online gateway courses across all eight campuses.
Before coming to Texas, Valerie supported the community college students of North Carolina for 15 years, where her passion for community college students began as a faculty member in the English department. Her degrees in secondary education, multicultural literature, gender studies, and diversity and equity in higher education, along with her foundation as a faculty member, shape her approach to student-centered, equity-minded instructional reform.
The move across the Southeast with her partner and 16foot kayaks, 11 chickens, three dogs, two horses, and an RV in tow reflects the healthy sense of humor Valeriebrings to important undertakings.
Prior to moving to the Houston area, she served for six years as the vice president for instruction at Odessa College when they receivedAspen Institute Rising Star Awards in 2017 and 2019, and the 2018 Achieving the Dream Leah Meyer Austin Award for transformative student success outcomes. Full-scale adoption of instructional transformation, including migration to 8-week terms, institutionalization of a First-Year Faculty Experience, creation of an Open Education Resources degree, and guided pathways work led to record-setting course completion and course success rates. This work eliminated historic disparities across modalities, genders, races, and ethnicities in multiple areas.
Her dedication to equitable outcomes for college students continues with the creation of iBelong at LSC-CyFair and prior leadership for design and implementation of LSC’s Commitment to Online Resources and Equity focused on eliminating disparities by modality and race/ethnicity in online gateway courses across all eight campuses.
Before coming to Texas, Valerie supported the community college students of North Carolina for 15 years, where her passion for community college students began as a faculty member in the English department. Her degrees in secondary education, multicultural literature, gender studies, and diversity and equity in higher education, along with her foundation as a faculty member, shape her approach to student-centered, equity-minded instructional reform.
The move across the Southeast with her partner and 16foot kayaks, 11 chickens, three dogs, two horses, and an RV in tow reflects the healthy sense of humor Valeriebrings to important undertakings.