Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones is an International Development Media Consultant and has lived in Nairobi, Kenya for the past seven years. In November 2015, Jones was name one of the Top 10 Media Writers of the year on @LinkedIn.

Most recently, Jones served as Editor/Stringer Coordinator for Voice of America's "South Sudan in Focus" evening news broadcast. Jones, who has worked for National Public Radio, the former Knight Ridder News Service, the Detroit Free Press and the St. Petersburg Times, also served as Project Director for the Internews Network's Gulu, Uganda Radio Training Center, From June 2007 until February 2008, Jones helped train and mentor nearly five-dozen media professionals, covering issues ranging from policy, health, education, and child welfare related to the aftermath of more than two decades of civil war in Northern Uganda. Jones has also conducted Internews trainings for reporters who cover HIV/AIDS issues in Ethiopia, and for education reporters in Nigeria. She also organized trainings for journalists in Juba, South Sudan and Kigali, Rwanda for Voice of America and the US State Department.

Jones came to Kenya in July of 2008, through the Knight Health Fellowship Program of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). She was based with Nation Media Group, the largest media company in East and Central Africa. In August of 2010, Jones was awarded an International Public Engagement Grant from the UK's Wellcome Trust, which she used to launch the KAHSR. As KAHSR Director, Jones organized week-long training workshops and regional briefings for Kenyan reporters.

Since both the ICFJ and KAHSR projects ended, Jones has taken on projects including a 5-country journalism training tour on EAC Regional Integration for TradeMark East Africa, a reporter's briefing for the World Wide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN), and overseen media outreach events for the Bio-Innovate Scientific Research Conference and the global Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health. She was also Communications Advisor for UNICEF Kenya's Polio Advocacy Working Group, and organized a briefing on food security for the Kenya Food Security Steering Group, whose members iniclude FAO, WFP, UNICEF Kenya, USAID and the Kenya Ministry of Health.