Dear Friends of The Just Trust,
I am thrilled to share that The Just Trust for Education and The Just Trust for Action have appointed two new board members to help lead our work at a critical moment for justice reform and public safety innovation in the United States.
Ja’Ron Smith – Partner at the CGCN Group – joins our 510(c)(3) board, where he will serve alongside Larry Miller, Chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board at Nike, and Brian Hooks, Chairman and CEO of Stand Together. John Bailey – Non-resident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute – joins our 501(c)(4) board, where he will work with David Plouffe, political consultant, former Obama presidential campaign manager and White House Senior Advisor, and Jenny Kim, Partner at The Gober Group.
Here is a bit more about our two new board members:
Ja’Ron Smith
Ja’Ron is a Partner at CGCN Group – one of DC’s preeminent Republican public affairs firms specializing in lobbying, strategic communications, and regulatory consulting. Smith also recently served as the Executive Director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity at Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which aims to move people living in fragile communities from promise to prosperity, and also previously worked with the first Trump Administration as the highest and longest ranking African American advisor, serving in a number of roles including Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the White House Office of American Innovation.
Ja’Ron Smith has been a longtime advocate for economic development, crime prevention, entrepreneurship, and workforce development, and was awarded the 2020 Bipartisan Justice Award. He is a graduate of Howard University School of Business and Howard University School of Divinity and is an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church. He also serves as a Senior Fellow with Right on Crime and the Founder of Public Safety Solutions for America.
John Bailey
John serves as a strategic advisor and investor leveraging cross-sector experience in government, philanthropy, and the private sector to drive solutions in AI, innovation policy, climate technology, and behavioral health. He has supported a range of investors and philanthropies with designing their strategies, launching initiatives, and developing policy agendas.
John has served as a domestic policy advisor in the White House where he coordinated the Administration’s efforts during the credit crisis to stabilize $200 billion in student loans. He also served as a negotiator for the Trade Adjustment Assistance reauthorization. As Deputy Policy Director to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, John contributed to the first National Pandemic Strategy and the President’s package of high-skilled immigration reforms. He also served as Director of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. He co-founded the strategic advisory firm Whiteboard Advisors and served as a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. John has also been named one of Washington's Most Influential People in Policy for four consecutive years (2022–2025) by the Washingtonian magazine and has served as an advisor to four presidential campaigns.
We are so honored to have these two brilliant leaders and strategists in our corner. At a time when the work of criminal justice reform needs a fresh wave of investors, relentless innovation, and outside-the-box thinking, Ja’Ron and John will help steer this organization into its next chapter – in pursuit of true safety and justice in America.
With excitement and hope,
Ana Zamora
Founder & CEO
The Just Trust
