Ambassador John M. Jones (Ret.)
Last Name: Jones
First Name: John
Middle Name: M.
Rank: Ambassador
Service/Department: State Department
ACNSL Offices and Committees:
Medals and Honors:
Meritorious and Superior awards for Honor and Performance at the Department of State
Time Magazine “Current Events Award”
Last or Significant Assignment: United States Ambassador to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana
John Melvin Jones served as United States Ambassador to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. He has over thirty years of domestic and international Foreign Service experience. Prior to serving as Ambassador, he was Special Advisor to the Coordinator for Stabilization and Reconstruction at the US Department of State. Earlier, he had served thirteen months as Team Leader of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Diyala Province, Iraq and was Deputy Team Leader for the Joint (State-DOD) Inspection Team for the Evaluation of Police Training in Afghanistan.
His domestic State Department assignments have included The Office of the Legal Advisor, The Operations Center, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Bureau of African Affairs, Faculty Advisor to the Inter-American Defense College and Defense Board, Office of the Director for Counter-Terrorism and Office of the Inspector General. He was also State Department Representative to the Foreign Terrorist Asset Targeting Group. His foreign assignments include the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Honduras, Iraq and Guyana.
John earned a BA in History from Howard University, a JD in Law from the Howard University School of Law, an MBA from The Wharton Graduate School - University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Strategic Studies from The National Defense University – National War College and a Graduate Certificate in National Security Studies from the Maxwell School – Syracuse University.
Before entering government service, he was in private legal practice in Pennsylvania and was an Administrative Hearings Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was also an Assistant Professor of Business Law and Insurance at Pennsylvania State University. He came to Washington in 1979 to serve as a Project Officer for the U.S. Commission on the International Year of the Child. In 1980, he was named Legal Advisor to the U.S. Select Congressional Committee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. At the same time, he was an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at George Mason University. He joined the Foreign Service in 1981.
Since his retirement from active duty at the Department of State, in 2011, Ambassador Jones has been an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University in the School of Business Management and the School of Policy, Government and International Affairs. He taught 2 courses at the Graduate and Undergraduate levels in Business Law, Business Legal Ethics and The Government Inter-Agency Process.
From 2011 to 2019, was assigned as a Senior Inspector and Team Leader for the Department of State, Office of the Inspector General. In this capacity, he has led inspection teams to Europe, Latin and Central America, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and to several State Department domestic bureaus including the US/Mexican Consulates and the Broadcasting Board of Governors - Office of Cuba Broadcasting. He served as a subject matter expert and lecturer at the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies - National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. and at the Department of State- National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Arlington, VA. He has served as a Consultant and Subject Matter Expert at the Mission Command Training Program of the U.S. Army at Fort Leavenworth, KS and has participated in planning and training exercises at Fort Leavenworth, Fort Hood, TX, Ft. Bliss, TX, Camp Atterbury, IN, Fort Campbell, KY and Schofield Barracks, HI. He also serves as an advisor and Subject Matter Expert for the U.S. Marine Corps University – Command and Staff College, and is lecturer for the Senior Enlisted Personnel Education Program at Quantico, VA. In addition, he also serves as a Subject Matter Expert for the Joint Military Attaché School. Since 2017, he has served as a Senior Advisor and role player at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, LA.
In 2024, he was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.
He has been awarded several Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards by the Department of State. And, was awarded the Expeditionary Service Award for his service in Iraq. John is fluent in Spanish and French and has some ability in Portuguese, Vietnamese and Arabic.
He and his wife Aaronia currently reside in Woodbridge, VA.
