Biography
Dr. Jess Jones is the program director of the Chief Learning Officer doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She earned her Ed.D. from Penn GSE and previously served as academic director of onboarding and contributing faculty within the program. In her leadership role, she oversees program strategy, student experience, and curriculum innovation for executive doctoral learners.
Dr. Jones’s scholarship and teaching focus on leadership development, psychological safety, organizational learning, and executive education. Her dissertation research examined psychological safety and power dynamics in business-to-business sales relationships, with a broader research agenda exploring how individuals foster psychologically safe environments without relying on positional authority. She has published and presented on leadership, inclusion, emotional intelligence, and organizational transformation in both academic and practitioner settings.
In addition to her academic work, Dr. Jones brings more than 20 years of executive leadership and consulting experience in professional services. Prior to joining Penn full time, she served in multiple senior leadership roles, including chief operating officer of a firm’s Leadership Division. Her industry experience spans organizational transformation, leadership development, change management, executive coaching, and strategic growth initiatives for healthcare organizations and academic medical centers across the U.S. Dr. Jones is also a trained executive coach and a certified Prosci ADKAR change management practitioner.
Education
- Ed.D. (Chief Learning Officer) University of Pennsylvania, 2025
- Ed.M. (Chief Learning Officer) University of Pennsylvania, 2024
- M.S. (Interdisciplinary Telecommunications) University of Colorado, 2001
- B.S. (Business Information Systems) University of Colorado, 2001
- B.A. (Psychology) University of Colorado, 2001
Areas of Expertise
- Leadership development
- Organizational learning, transformation, culture, and change
- Psychological safety in the workplace
- Sales and business growth strategy
- Organizational performance improvement
- Executive coaching and professional development
Links
Academic Programs
Medical Education, M.S.Ed. Penn Chief Learning Officer, Ed.D.Research Interests and Current Projects
Dr. Jones’s research interests focus on psychological safety, leadership communication, emotional intelligence, and organizational learning within complex workplace environments. Her scholarship explores how individuals foster trust, collaboration, and psychologically safe climates, particularly in settings characterized by asymmetric power dynamics and high performance expectations. Her doctoral research examined psychological safety in business-to-business sales relationships, identifying behavioral constructs that influence trust and cooperation between organizational partners. Dr. Jones’s current research extends this work by investigating how individuals create psychologically safe environments without relying on positional authority, with applications across leadership, executive education, and organizational transformation.
Publications
