Through Rain and Fire-and still no smoke

Richard D. Jones is the Founder and Executive Director of the Respond2Grace Foundation, a faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Clinton, Maryland. The Foundation was born out of Mr. Jones’s deeply personal and transformative experience with housing insecurity more than two decades ago. For 529 consecutive days, Mr. Jones lived without stable housing. Yet, in the midst of adversity, he pursued his faith and future by enrolling in Cottonwood School of Ministry, where he earned his degree in Biblical Studies.  Since then, Mr. Jones has dedicated his life to serving God and serving the housing insecure community. Under his leadership, Respond2Grace operates through a unique model of prevention, transformation, and restoration, engaging data-driven solutions and community-based coalitions—called the Alliance of Grace—to holistically address the root causes of homelessness.  A proud graduate of Florida State University and a committed member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Mr. Jones brings a wealth of experience from the corporate and healthcare sectors. His impressive professional résumé includes leadership roles such as Vice President, Director of Business Development, and senior advisory positions within healthcare organizations, where he strategically advanced community health outcomes and organizational growth.  In addition to his nonprofit and corporate accomplishments, Mr. Jones serves as the Associate Pastor of New Hope Fellowship Church, where he helps lead a vibrant ministry that reaches the housing insecure population with food, water, clothing, shelter—and most importantly, the Word of God. He believes ministry is not confined to the pulpit, but must be lived out in the streets where pain and promise intersect.  Mr. Jones is happily married to Dr. Sherita McLamore Jones, a distinguished professional in her own right, and they are the proud parents of their son, Isaiah Richard Jones. Despite his many titles and accomplishments, Mr. Jones humbly declares that his greatest achievements are being a husband, a father, and a child of God.  With a heart forged through hardship and a purpose anchored in faith, Richard D. Jones is a voice of hope, a vessel of service, and a living testimony that grace is not only sufficient—it transforms.