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Wanda Jones, executive director of the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce, began working in her family's rural grocery store as soon as she was old enough to read.

"I swept the concrete floors, dusted and stocked the shelves, counted the money, made change for the customers, and pumped many, many gallons of gasoline," she recalled with a laugh. "It wasn't a chore for me. I loved it! This is where I learned many of the lessons of life, at my grandmother's knee. The neighbors would congregate in our yard in the summer under the big old oak tree and shell peas and butterbeans. We'd usually sit in a circle in old chairs and shell each other's vegetables until all the work was done. The grownups would tell stories, and I'd go into our store and get cold drinks for everyone. It seems like 100 years ago."

The older of two children born to James Robert Madison Sr., an industrial worker and later a truck driver, and Gladys Irene, a homemaker, Jones grew up in the Rustin community east of Laurel, attending Sandersville Elementary School and Northeast Jones High School.

"I wasn't very athletic in school," she confided, "but I ran track one semester and prayed for it to end quickly." She was passionate about home economics and English, winning awards for each class.

Jones earned an associate's degree in nursing from Jones County Junior College in 1973 and a bachelor's degree in nursing from William Carey College in 1981. In 1988, she earned a master's degree in nursing administration with a minor in community health from the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1994, she completed eight hours of post-graduate study in William Carey's MBA Executive Program. She is on track to finish her doctorate in nursing at Southern Miss by August 2008.

In 1981, Jones was accepted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. The following year, South Mississippi Home Health, Inc. named her "Best All-Around Manager." In 1991, the Mississippi Home Health Association gave her special recognition for the development of statewide home health aide training, testing and certification. In 1992, the Mississippi Nurses Association named her Nurse of the Year for District 8.

In 1996, state lawmakers approved the creation of the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce (ONW). Publicly and privately funded, ONW falls under the auspices of the Mississippi Board of Nursing, which contracts with the Mississippi Hospital Association Health, Research and Education Foundation for fiduciary management.

During the early years of ONW, Jones, a registered nurse, worked at Riley Memorial Hospital as director of women's services. She took over as ONW leader in August 2001 as the sole full-time employee.

"I had a successful career in nursing administration in hospitals, home health and hospice, and had also taught nursing at the Medical College of Georgia," said Jones. "(Then) I received a phone call from a colleague in Jackson, on behalf of ONW's advisory committee, who described a unique opportunity for a position, and she expressed that they needed someone with the knowledge and skills I possessed. I would have to leave the security of a full-time, well-paying position, and accept an unsure position depending on ongoing grant funding. I was not hesitant at all, but had to convince my husband that this was the right thing to do."

A highly successful grant writer, Jones had good reason not to worry. When she started the ONW job, there was only $32,000 remaining of the original Robert Wood Foundation grant. Within four years, she was awarded nearly $4 million from public and private state and federal entities and foundations to not only continue data collection and nursing competency work, but also for new programs, including recruitment, mentorship, student support, nurse residency programs, clinical placement and website development.

Jones has expanded the ONW to include a full-time projects manager, three healthcare workforce specialists with master's degrees, and five consultants (four have PhDs.).

In 2005, the Mississippi Hospital Association's Organization of Nurse Executives named her Nurse Executive of the Year; she had three projects published in the American Hospital Association's annual "Best Practices" edition; she was featured in the chapter, "Using Data to Influence Nursing Workforce Data," in "Nursing Workforce Development: Strategic State Initiatives" (Springer Publishing) and participated in other publications. At the American Organization of Nurse Executives' 2005 annual conference in Chicago, Jones' poster presentation placed third.

Jones, who married economic developer Wade Jones six years ago, has three grown children. Her older daughter, Mandy Polen Robison, a pharmacist, lives in Birmingham, Ala., with her husband, Robert and their two daughters, Madison Bailey and Morgan Elizabeth.

"The greatest challenge in my life has been the loss of my first grandchild, Robert Blake Robison," she said. "He was a perfectly formed little boy with long black hair, who died at 35 weeks of pregnancy from an umbilical cord accident. I was an OB nurse at the time and felt so utterly helpless in my inability to change the situation."

Jones' younger daughter, Melody Polen Read, a pediatric intensive care nurse at Birmingham Children's' Hospital for four years, and her husband, Grahame, are expecting their first child in January. Her son, Neil Polen, is a third-year architecture student at Mississippi State University.

"God has also blessed me to become mother to two wonderful stepchildren who lost their mother to brain cancer," said Jones. The older stepdaughter, Amanda Katherine, is a junior at Ole Miss planning to attend graduate school. The younger child, Marshall, is a senior at Meridian High School. The blended family dotes on their two black Labrador retrievers, Rebel and Dixie, which Jones might have named Bully I and Bully II if given the opportunity, she joked.

"I'm beginning to know and experience what Maslow meant with his 'self-actualization' level of human needs and development," said Jones. "I've been blessed to have the education, and clinical, administrative and teaching positions throughout my career that I desired. I'm now in the most rewarding and challenging positions … pursuing a PhD in nursing. The additional education will enhance and increase my abilities that I might meet the needs of opportunities presented to me. This will be my giving back to the profession that has given so much to me."


January 2007

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