A Legislative Voice
in Annapolis

By Tricia Granata

As a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from Baltimore County for more than six years and now the first African American woman to be Speaker Pro Tem, Adrienne Jones is acting on a life-long commitment to serve others. From an early age, she was concerned about issues that are still dear to her now—education, children and youth, civil rights and economic development.

Growing up in Cowdensville, a small, historic, African American community near UMBC, and attending schools in Arbutus, Jones was influenced greatly by two strong women in her life—her mother, Eula Williams, and her seventh grade science teacher at Arbutus Junior High School, Florence McMillian. Both taught her valuable lessons and instilled in her the importance of volunteering and working for others.

"My mother taught me, 'Be yourself or be by yourself,'" Jones remembers. "That is, don't forget where you came from. If you do a complete change from the values you were taught, you will find yourself not being the type of person others want to be associated with."
McMillian taught a valuable lesson in tenacity and determination: that "you need to go the extra step to prove yourself and go beyond what is expected of you, as an African American female," says Jones.

With such strong values to guide her, Jones became a student at UMBC, graduating with a degree in psychology in 1976. "In the ‘70s, if you were majoring in psychology or sociology, you wanted to save the world," she says.
She first became interested in politics after becoming an assistant to former Baltimore County Executive Donald Hutchinson in 1979. "I learned all about county government, and it fascinated me," she says.

Jones has spent more than 25 years working in increasingly responsible positions with the Baltimore County government and is now executive director of the Baltimore County Office of Fair Practices and Community Affairs. She was appointed to the Maryland House of Delegates by Governor Parris Glendening in 1997 and won her seat by popular vote in 1998. (That same year the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association named her Delegate of the Year.)

During her tenure as a delegate, she has sponsored legislation to provide science and technology scholarships to Maryland students, to fund Police Athletic Leagues and child care centers, to enhance teachers’ pensions and to provide collective bargaining for state employees.

An avid volunteer all of her life, she also manages to serve on numerous boards and committees, including the American Cancer Society, Friends of the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park, Baltimore County Leadership Alumni Board, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators and the Coalition of 100 Black Women. She also is the mother of two young boys, Brandon and Daylan, and instilling the respect for others and hard work that she was brought up with are a large part of her parenting.

"Adrienne represents UMBC and its mission and vision for its students and graduates through her tireless efforts to contribute to the improvement of her community and her willingness to share her life experience, professional expertise, political savvy and warm personality to benefit the citizens of Baltimore County and the State of Maryland," says Joan Williams, UMBC’s director of government and community relations, in supporting Jones’ nomination for the Alumni Association’s Outstanding Alumna of the Year Award.

Respected by colleagues and constituents alike, Jones takes great satisfaction in her roles as community advocate and public servant. "I see my work as another level of community service," she says. "Often people say why don’t ‘they’ do something about this. Well, I see myself as being the ‘they.’"