Board of Directors

Jill Rosenberg Jones, Chairperson and Treasurer

Jill is the Executor of the James Weldon Johnson Literary Estate and is the co-founder and Chairperson of the James Weldon Johnson Foundation. Passionately devoted to advancing the legacy of James Weldon Johnson, Jill owns the copyright to and manages the permissions for James Weldon Johnson’s papers at Yale’s Beinecke Library and Emory’s Woodruff Library, which together hold approximately 1,500 writings and artifacts from Johnson’s life.

Jill has had a long and successful career in financial services and has lived and worked all over the world. Currently, she is a Managing Director at Credit Suisse. In addition, she has held positions at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and WGBH, the public television station in Boston.

Named one of fourteen Black Women to Watch in Philanthropy by BlackHer Media in 2019, Jill is an avid supporter of emerging, mid-career and established artists through the James Weldon Johnson Fellowship in the Arts Program. Having lived in Australia for two years as a management consultant, Jill is also a passionate collector of Australian Aboriginal art.

Jill holds an A.B. In History from Harvard College and an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Additionally, Jill sits on the Board of Trustees of Bard College at Simon’s Rock.

Rufus E. Jones, Jr., President

Rufus is the co-founder and President of the James Weldon Johnson Foundation. He began his affiliation with advancing the legacy of James Weldon Johnson in 2000 as the co-producer of the James Weldon Johnson Medal ceremony under the guidance and leadership of the late Dr. Sondra Kathryn Wilson, a pre-eminent James Weldon Johnson scholar. In 2016, Rufus helped establish the James Weldon Johnson Literary Foundation Legacy Award for performing arts, fine arts and historic preservation.

Like Johnson's proficiency in a wide range of fields, Rufus has at different times in his life, held roles as an educator, entrepreneur, musician, songwriter, and Wall Street trader.

Rufus has over thirty years of relationship management and sales trading experience in highly complex, competitive organizations, working on behalf of institutions and individual investors. In 2020, Rufus retired after a twenty-year career on Wall Street as a Senior Equity Trader at Watermill Institutional Trading in order to focus on the Foundation and his music. In addition, he has held positions at Lehman Brothers, SunTrust and Goldman Sachs responsible for equity sales trading, equity capital markets, and private wealth management. Prior to his transition to Wall Street, Rufus worked as an educator and administrator at The Latin School of Chicago and The Dalton School of New York, where he was a Dean of Students, History Teacher, Coach, Coordinator of Corporate and Foundation Giving and Manager of Grants and Special Projects.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Rufus holds an A.B. degree from Harvard University and received his M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee. Additionally, Rufus volunteers as a Phillips Academy (Andover) Alumni Admissions Representative in New Jersey and as a member of the record setting Harvard Class of 1987 Class Gift Committee. Rufus sits on the board of the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire and advisory boards of the College & Career Lab (CCL) and College & Career Pathway Lab (CCPL).