
Meet Our Spark Honoree: Jennifer Jones Austin
It's the most inspiring morning in Brooklyn, and you're invited!
Join us Tuesday, March 14th at the Brooklyn Museum for our annual Spark Breakfast to celebrate the five newest $100,000 Spark Prize winners and honor the incomparable Jennifer Jones Austin.
Jennifer Jones Austin, Esq. is a Brooklyn born and raised, fourth-generation faith and social justice leader. As Chair of the NYC Racial Justice Commission, the first of its kind in the nation, she led the development and passage by the New York City electorate in 2022 of three unprecedented proposals to amend the city’s charter to dismantle structural racism and embed racial justice and equity in all government functions.
As CEO and Executive Director of FPWA, an anti-poverty, policy, and advocacy organization with 170 member agencies and faith partners, Ms. Jones Austin has led and secured monumental changes in social policy to strengthen and empower the disenfranchised and marginalized. She brings to her work a profound understanding of the link between race, poverty, law and social policy in America, and the role religion plays.
Ms. Jones Austin is also a radio host; public speaker; author of Consider It Pure Joy; and editor of God in the Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited. She is the Visiting Scholar at the New York University Silver School of Social Work and the Scholar in Residence at Alliance University Center for Racial Reconciliation (CRR). She chaired the NYC Board of Correction and presided over the rulemaking process to end solitary confinement in New York City jails. She was lead advisor for Full Day UPK expansion in 2014-2015 and the 2020-2021 NYPD Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.
Jennifer Jones Austin also serves as Vice Chair of the Board of the National Action Network, and Advisory Board Member for the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior at Harvard University and for the Feerick Center for Social Justice.
Don't miss your chance to celebrate Jennifer, alongside all of the incredible changemakers in Brooklyn's nonprofit community! If you can't attend, consider sponsoring a seat for a community partner, making a donation, or a purchasing a tribute ad.
PURCHASE TICKETS