Organization: Baltimore Algebra Project
Title: Co-Executive Director of the Baltimore Algebra Project
Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Jamal Jones is a 24-year-old youth organizer who works with The Baltimore Algebra Project in Baltimore, MD. Jamal serves as the Co-Executive Director for the Baltimore Algebra Project through a Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing fellowship. In this role, Jamal helps facilitate the organizing projects that the Baltimore Algebra Project works on throughout the course of the year. These campaigns include revisions to school policing policies, the national Student Bill of Rights, and a campaign for community control of schools, where he worked to establish a community-driven shared use agreement for Baltimore City Public School System. In his eight years with the organization, Jamal has worked on campaigns that include stopping the construction of a 100 million dollar youth jail, obtaining day passes for travel for students during the school week, and the introduction of salad bars to six high schools.

Jamal organizes citywide in Baltimore for community control of resources, Black institution building, and for the overall uplifting of Black people and communities of color. Jamal has worked closely with the Baltimore City School District to prevent school closures in the city, and has worked with school administrators to meet the needs of the community. He has assisted in creating a shared use policy template for the Baltimore City School District to use as a guide for schools throughout the District. Jamal believes schools can serve many needs of the community and shared use is the avenue to address those needs. He also has educated and empowered the community on shared use and its ability to address inequities in lower income communities and communities of color. 

Jamal is currently a senior at Morgan State University earning his B.A. as a philosophy major and psychology minor. Jamal is also the father of two daughters, Jayla (age five) and Kaylee (age three) who attend Baltimore City Public Schools.