Foundation executive: Ingrid Saunders Jones - The Many-Splendored Faces of Today's Black Woman

Ebony, March, 1997

For Ingrid Saunders Jones, a "magic moment" occurred when she visited mith participants of the Critical Difference for Women program at Ohio State University. The Coca-Cola Foundation, of which she is chair, had committed $250,000 to the program, which provides scholarships to women -- many of whom are blue-collar, single mother's and women of color -- to help them to return to college.

After Jones shared lunch with participants and heard firsthand how they benefited from the program-how it changed their lives, how a janitor had become a high school physics teacher-the Foundation doubled its commitment to $500,000.

"What we are talking about is tapping the potential," she says, "providing opportunity to allow that potential to come out. Critical Difference is a magnificent program."

Programs that make a difference define Jones' job as chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation and vice president of corporate external affairs for the Coca-Cola Company. "The foundation is designed to improve, enhance and contribute to the quality of life," says Jones. "And there is no question that education is one of those variables that determines the quality of life for communities, quality of life for individuals.... We believe that by increasing individual opportunity, education can recast the economic and social future of the communities in which we live."

She says the foundation is always listening and looking for programs that are on the cutting edge, that are not traditional and that provide non-traditional educational opportunities. "There are a lot of good things happening in the world," she says. "There are people, there are organizations, there are institutions that are all trying to make life better, and I get to interface with them on behalf of the Coca-Cola Company. And that is quite an honor."

Hundreds of programs and thousands of participants are honored to have the support of Jones and the Foundation. In fact, the Foundation has committed more than $50 million to "advancing excellence in education" in this decade alone. Since 1990, the Foundation has provided more than 2,500 scholarships, two-thirds of which have gone to minority students. More $4 million has been contributed to support 1,200 students seeking graduate or professional degrees at more than 40 historically Black colleges and universities supported by the United Negro College Fund.

Through her work at the foundation and her personal commitment to giving back to the community, Jones has emerged as one of the nation's foremost and most powerful corporate executives mith a philanthropic mission. Her department led Coca-Cola's support of community development programs, such as the Cultural Olympiad, during the 1996 Olympic Games. It also funded an Olympics curriculum in local schools and launched an education and training initiative to provide jobs for the unemployed and underemployed during the Olympics.

A dedicated advocate of the arts and proponent of arts education programs in public schools, jones chaired the Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center 1994-95 corporate fund-raising campaign, which surpassed its $4.7 million goal. She currently is fund-raising campaign chair of the National Black Arts Festival.

The Foundation's primary focus of advancing education is a natural fit for Jones, who started her career as a teacher in Detroit. "I am still a teacher in my heart," she says. Jones describes herself as a "by-product of a historically Black college" because her parents, Homer and Georgia Saunders of Detroit, met while students at Knoxville (Tenn.) College before earning advanced degrees at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. "In our family, education was just assumed," says Jones, who earned a degree in education at Michigan State and a masters degree in education at Eastern Michigan University.

After college, she taught in the Detroit public school system, and then worked as executive director at the Detroit/Wayne County Child Care Coordinating Council. She also taught school in Atlanta before serving as executive assistant to Maynard Jackson, then mayor of Atlanta.

In 1982, Jones joined Coca-Cola as assistant to the vice president of urban affairs. In 1991, after a number of promotions, she was elected vice president of corporate external affairs and chairperson of the Coca-Cola Foundation.

In 1996 the Coca-Cola Company announced that it will more than double the endowment of the Foundation. At its current rate of giving under Jones' leadership, the Foundation will have contributed more than $100 million to education by the year 2000.

During her 15 years in corporate America, Jones says at times she has found being a Black woman has its challenges. "You find moments when you really have to take the responsibility for helping people to be comfortable with you because they are not accustomed to working with a woman," she says. "But I consider that just one of the natural challenges of living."

For women and anyone seeking success, she says patience and preparation are important. "You must be prepared to be your best. You must understand what the standard of excellence is, meet that challenge and make sure you do your current job to the best of your ability," says Jones. "Some people look so far in advance that they don't take care of what they are doing now. You've got to be prepared because if opportunity comes and you're not prepared, you can't take advantage of it."