Clemson University’s Roy Jones to Retire in June

Roy Jones, longtime faculty member with the College of Education at Clemson University in South Carolina, has announced his intent to retire in June after more than two decades of service and four decades as an educator in South Carolina.

A Clemson faculty member since 2003, Dr. Jones is known for his leadership with the Call Me MiSTER program, a teacher recruitment and retention initiative that seeks to increase the number of teachers in hard-to-staff schools. Dr. Jones first started working with Call Me MiSTER when it was founded at historically Black Claflin University in South Carolina. When he joined the Clemson faculty, Dr. Jones brought Call Me MiSTER with him and has served as its executive director ever since. He also directs the Center for Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Educators. In 2019, he was named a provost distinguished professor, a special designation awarded by the provost to recognize outstanding scholars who are highly productive and have built a national reputation for Clemson University.

While at Claflin, Dr. Jones taught as an associate professor of education. He served as chair of the university’s division of education when Claflin became the first private HBCU in the state of South Carolina to receive accreditation from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Earlier in his career, Dr. Jones spent eight years as director of employment for the Charleston County School District.

Dr. Jones received his bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was one of the university’s first African American students. He later earned his master’s degree in educational psychology from what is now historically Black Clark Atlanta University. Dr Jones received his doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Georgia, where he was the only African American in his program.