CHAPEL HILL, NC — On April 15, at the annual Public Service Awards event, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill honored 11 individuals — including Dawna Jones, from East Orange — and one organization for outstanding contributions to the campus and broader communities. This year’s event was held virtually.
Jones, a staff member at the university, won the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award for leadership of the Carolina Black Caucus, the Chapel Hill–Carrboro NAACP and specifically the NAACP community transformation and civic engagement internship and work study program.
In 2018, Jones was nominated by her peers to chair the Carolina Black Caucus, an affinity group created to engage, empower, celebrate and advocate for black faculty, staff and students. Under her leadership, the CBC membership has grown by 87 percent.
Furthermore, as chairperson of the Chapel Hill–Carrboro NAACP, Jones worked to form partnerships with EmPOWERment Inc. and UNC–Chapel Hill to create a leadership experience for students. The result of those partnerships is known as the NAACP community transformation and civic engagement internship and work study program. This program enables six Carolina students to work with local community leaders, social justice activists and elected officials to help create and implement the strategic plan of the local NAACP in response to social justice issues and disparities in the Chapel Hill–Carrboro community. In its inaugural phase, student participants produced 20 policy briefings detailing current events, legislation and/or social justice advocacy issues, proposed actions for the NAACP and compiled research on what populations are most impacted. None of this would have been possible without Jones’ leadership.
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