When Gina Ortiz Jones accepted a prestigious Air Force ROTC college scholarship as a senior at San Antonio’s John Jay High School, she had no idea she was about to sign a document that would shape the rest of her life. To claim the scholarship that would send her to Boston University, she first had to pledge—at 18 years old—that she would not “engage in homosexual behavior.”
“I’ll never forget signing that piece of paper,” says Jones, g’13. “It really shaped my understanding of why you need good leaders—so we don’t have dumb policies in place that, in effect, detract from our ability to tap into the full talent in an organization.”
That was 1998, deep in the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Two decades later, Jones returned to that same institution—the U.S. Air Force—as its second-highest civilian leader, charged with helping 700,000 military personnel, and their families, know they belonged. And now, in her new role as the 69th mayor of San Antonio, she continues the same mission she began as a teenager: ensuring that opportunity and dignity are within reach for everyone.
Raised by a single mother who emigrated from the Philippines to pursue the American dream, Jones grew up in a city defined by its military roots. “San Antonio is literally ‘Military City USA,’” she says. “At my high school, there were more kids in Junior ROTC than in my graduating class.”
Jones was a junior at Boston University when 9/11 happened; after commissioning upon graduation, she deployed as a close-air-support officer, defending ground troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom. When Jones returned home, she faced another battle: Her mother had been diagnosed with colon cancer, so Jones left active duty to care for her. “Thankfully, she’s cancer-free and a riot,” Jones says with a laugh.
Jones joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2008, serving as an adviser on Latin America while still home in San Antonio, then became an inaugural member of the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, helping establish military oversight of operations across Africa, including support for South Sudan’s vote for independence and operations during the Arab Spring.
In 2012, Jones arrived in Kansas to pursue graduate study through both the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth—as a civilian, in a program supported by the Army’s Special Operations Command—and at KU, where she earned a master’s in global and international studies and discovered what became her favorite book: Hannah Arendt’s The Banality of Evil. “It’s so relevant today,” she says. “You’ve got to question the environment that produces folks to understand how things got to where they are. Let me just say, I think it’s very applicable for the time we’re in.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Jones to serve as undersecretary of the Air Force, and the Senate unanimously confirmed her as the first woman of color to hold the undersecretary post in any branch of the U.S. military. She oversaw a $173 billion budget and helped lead initiatives that fundamentally changed how the Air Force supports its people.
Under her tenure, the Air Force became the only branch to guarantee medical and legal support to service members and families affected by state-level anti-LGBTQ+ laws—and to help relocate them if necessary. She changed policies governing pregnant pilots, allowing them to continue flying under medical supervision so they wouldn’t lose flight hours or career momentum. She even persuaded the Thai Royal Air Force to open its Air Command and Staff College to women.
Each reform carried a consistent theme: readiness through inclusion. “It’s not about checking a box,” she told HuffPost at the time. “It’s about tapping into the full talent of our force.”
When Jones left the Pentagon in 2023, after 12- to 14-hour days tackling what she called “meaty, meaty issues,” she said her next chapter would “always be related to public service.” Two years later, voters in her hometown made that promise real, electing her mayor of the country’s seventh-largest city.
“We’re Military City USA, but we’re also the 21st-largest manufacturing-export region in the country, and what does that need to look like in 2045 or 2050? We need to lean into our space manufacturing, our cybersecurity capabilities and our unique advanced manufacturing, which has direct applications for national security.”
Jones also champions early childhood education. Her goal: fully fund the “Pre-K 4 SA” initiative, providing high-quality prekindergarten access. “We all know the best investment we can make is early. That foundation changes everything.”
For Jones, leadership has always been personal. Her mother’s journey from university graduate in the Philippines to domestic helper in the United States taught her to view privilege not as entitlement but as obligation. “My mom reminded us every day that we were lucky—not smart, but lucky—to be born in this country,” she says. “We had to give back to a nation that gave us so much.”
That conviction has guided every step of her career, from ROTC to combat in Iraq to the halls of the Pentagon and City Hall. “More people live in San Antonio than in 11 states,” she says. “It’s a real opportunity to do good for a lot of folks and to remind people what good public service looks like at the local level.”
Chris Lazzarino, j’86, is associate editor of Crimson & Blue.
