What is the net worth and salary of Van Jones?
Van Jones is an American political commentator, activist, businessman, lawyer, and author who has a net worth of $5 million. He is best known as a political commentator on CNN. Van Jones is best known for hosting or co-hosting CNN television shows such as “Crossfire”, “The Van Jones Show” and “The Missy Truth”. He also founded or co-founded several non-profit organizations, including Color of Change and Dream Corps Accelerator for Social Justice. Among his other endeavors, Jones is CEO of the criminal justice reform initiative REFORM Alliance.
Early life and education
Van Jones was born Anthony Cable Jones on September 20, 1968 in Jackson, Tennessee to middle school principal Willie and high school teacher Loretta. He has a twin sister named Angela. Growing up, Jones was a book boy who loved the civil rights work of the late Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedys. As a teenager, he went to Jackson Central Merry High School. Jones went to attend the University of Tennessee at Martin, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science. At school, he helped found several independent publications on campus, including the University of Tennessee’s Fourteenth District and Vanderbilt University’s Periscope. Later, Jones attended Yale Law School, graduating in 1993 with a JD degree. He then moved to San Francisco, California to engage with left-wing activist groups. Jones ended up co-founding a socialist group called Stand Together to organize a revolutionary movement.
career beginnings
While a student at UT Martin, Jones trained for newspapers such as the Jackson Sun, Shreveport Times, and Associated Press. Later, while attending Yale Law School, he became involved with the Committee of Lawyers for Civil Rights. In 1995, Jones launched the group’s Bay Area PoliceWatch project, a hotline for victims of police abuse.
non-profit organizations
In 1996, Jones founded the non-profit organization Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, named after the honorary activist and civil rights leader. Based in Oakland, California, the group works to break cycles of urban violence and advance justice, peace and opportunity in urban centers. Later, in 2005, the Ella Baker Center expanded its vision to advance environmental justice. This expansion included the creation of the Green Collar Jobs Campaign. Also in 2005, Jones co-founded the online civil rights advocacy group “Color of Change” with James Rucker. Founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the organization strives to empower black American voices to make government more responsive to issues affecting black communities.
Building on his environmental work with the Ella Baker Center, Jones launched a new environmental sanitation organization, Green for All, in 2007. The group, founded by Majora Carter, aims to build a green economy while lifting people out of poverty. Green for All carries out its mission by combining conservation, regulation and investment. Among his non-profit activities, Jones co-founded Advocates for Opioid Recovery with Newt Gingrich and Patrick J. Kennedy. He also co-founded Dream Corps Accelerating Social Justice with Jessica Jackson and Matt Haney. The organization owns and operates a number of advocacy projects, including #YesWeCode and #cut50. Jones is also CEO of the criminal justice reform initiative REFORM Alliance. Elsewhere, he has served on the boards of non-profit organizations such as Bioneers, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, and 1Sky.
GT
Obama administration
In early 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Jones as a special advisor on green jobs, entrepreneurship, and innovation. In this position, he worked to facilitate communication between federal agencies working for the green economy. Soon after his appointment, conservative media figures and Republican lawmakers launched a smear campaign against Jones, accusing him of being too extremist and falsely claiming that he signed a petition implying that the Bush administration was complicit in 9/11. In response, Jones resigned from the White House in September of 2009.
CNN
In 2013, Jones became a co-presenter of CNN’s “Crossfire” reboot of the political debate; He was joined by Stephanie Cutter, S.E. Cobb, and Newt Gingrich. The show was eventually canceled in late 2014. Two years later, Jones launched a CNN news documentary series, “Messy Truth,” which later spawned an in-studio talk series called “Messy Truth with Van Jones.” In 2018, Jones began hosting “The Van Jones Show”, and in 2019 he launched “The Redemption Project with Van Jones”.
In addition to his hosting, Jones regularly contributes political commentary to CNN. He has spoken on a range of topics for the network, including Supreme Court decisions, civil unrest, police violence, and racism.
author
As an author, Jones published his first book, Green Collar Economics: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, in 2008. The book describes a plan to solve both environmental, social, and economic issues simultaneously. Notably, “The Green Collar Economy” became the first environmental book by an African American author to appear on the New York Times bestseller list.
In 2012 Jones published his second book, Rebuilding the Dream, which focused on the work of his political organization that bears his name. He then published “Beyond Messy Truth: How We Diverged, How We Come Together” in 2017.
Other projects and activities
Among countless other projects, Jones is the founder and owner of the media company Magic Labs Media. Through the company, he produced the Webby Award-winning mini-series “The Missy Truth” and the Emmy Award-winning virtual reality experience of the same name. In 2021, Jones started a weekly podcast by Magic Labs Media called “Uncommon Ground with Van Jones.”
personal life
In 2005, Jones married his wife Jana Carter. The couple had two sons, Cabral and Matai, before divorcing in 2019.
[ad_2]
