![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Gina-Ortiz-Jones-San-Antonio.jpg\")
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. \u201cThankfully, she\u2019s cancer-free and a riot,\u201d Jones says with a laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s vote for independence and operations during the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2012, Jones arrived in Kansas to pursue graduate study through both the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth\u2014as a civilian, in a program supported by the Army\u2019s Special Operations Command\u2014and at KU, where she earned a master\u2019s in global and international studies and discovered what became her favorite book: Hannah Arendt\u2019s The Banality of Evil<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s so relevant today,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to question the environment that produces folks to understand how things got to where they are. Let me just say, I think it\u2019s very applicable for the time we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2014and to help relocate them if necessary. She changed policies governing pregnant pilots, allowing them to continue flying under medical supervision so they wouldn\u2019t lose flight hours or career momentum. She even persuaded the Thai Royal Air Force to open its Air Command and Staff College to women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each reform carried a consistent theme: readiness through inclusion. \u201cIt\u2019s not about checking a box,\u201d she told HuffPost at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s about tapping into the full talent of our force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jones left the Pentagon in 2023, after 12- to 14-hour days tackling what she called \u201cmeaty, meaty issues,\u201d she said her next chapter would \u201calways be related to public service.\u201d Two years later, voters in her hometown made that promise real, electing her mayor of the country\u2019s seventh-largest city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re Military City USA, but we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jones also champions early childhood education. Her goal: fully fund the \u201cPre-K 4 SA\u201d initiative, providing high-quality prekindergarten access. \u201cWe all know the best investment we can make is early. That foundation changes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Jones, leadership has always been personal. Her mother\u2019s 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. \u201cMy mom reminded us every day that we were lucky\u2014not smart, but lucky\u2014to be born in this country,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had to give back to a nation that gave us so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That conviction has guided every step of her career, from ROTC to combat in Iraq to the halls of the Pentagon and City Hall. \u201cMore people live in San Antonio than in 11 states,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chris Lazzarino, j\u201986, is associate editor of Crimson & Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The KU alumna and former Air Force officer carries her passion for inclusion into her new role leading the seventh-largest U.S. city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[69,70,71],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-jayhawks","tag-global-international-studies","tag-government","tag-military"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/San-Antonio-mayor.jpg\")
\n\n\n\nPhotos by Riley Carroll<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"