AICUO Staff

As the communications manager for AICUO, she is responsible for the office’s public relations, media relationships, and internal and external publications.

Originally from the state of Michigan, she moved to Ohio to attend Xavier University in 2017 and has been a resident ever since.

She previously served as the Community Outreach Manager at Efficiency Smart, a program of the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation. She was responsible for developing collaborative partnerships with local government organizations, educational institutions, businesses and community organizations to increase awareness of energy efficiency programs. She also executed a comprehensive public affairs campaign to enhance energy justice initiatives to vulnerable populations.

Prior to joining Efficiency Smart, she gained experience working in the public sector in her role in consumer protection and public affairs with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. She represented the Attorney General as a spokesperson in community and interagency task forces bringing together government organizations, business associations, and nonprofit agencies to protect the interest of Ohio consumers.

Manilath is a proud graduate of Otterbein University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and Public Relations. When she is not busy developing business partnerships, she enjoys traveling with her family.

During that time, Jones has led numerous government relations efforts that supported increases in need-based aid to students and ensured that independent college students can continue to access Ohio programs. His leadership has been recognized nationally, serving both as an Obama and Trump-administration appointee to the U.S. Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking sessions on Program Integrity and Gainful Employment, respectively, representing the independent-college sector. Jones served as president of the National Association of Independent College and University State Executives, a board member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), and for 13 years on NAICU’s acclaimed Legal Services Review Panel.

As an association executive, Jones led significant change, creating its program for collaborative services and affiliate membership. In the early 2010s, he forged AICUO’s agreements with the Inter-University Council Purchasing Group, Coalition for College Cost Savings, and numerous individual companies, leading to millions in purchases by member campuses of discounted goods and services. Later in the decade, he conducted the first best-practices review of peer associations, culminating in the publication of “A Complete Association: Best and New Practices to Support Ohio Private Colleges.”

Jones served on Ohio’s State Board of Education from 2011-2017. He served as a member of the board’s three-member leadership team and its Executive Committee during his entire tenure. He also chaired key committees, leading to the creation of two separate sets of high school graduation requirements and of Ohio’s new honors diploma system, to the establishment of the state’s first rules on the use of restraint-and-seclusion, and to the revision of its gifted education operating standards. He also played a key role in the selection of three state superintendents of instruction, and the creation of Ohio’s school district report card.

Jones joined AICUO after serving nearly four and a half years as a member of the Bush administration in the U.S. Department of Education. During his final three years, he oversaw policy development and budgeting for over $110 billion in federal spending as the Associate Deputy Secretary for Budget. Prior to that, he served as Acting Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) managing 670 staff in a dozen offices. While working at OCR, Jones served simultaneously as Executive Director of the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education. That commission’s recommendations served as the core framework for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, the current incarnation of the law.

Before joining in the administration, Jones was the President of the National Education Knowledge Industry Association. He also served as an attorney on the staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In that capacity, he was the chief staff negotiator of the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, and helped develop legislation that was enacted as the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Counsel for the American Rehabilitation Association.

Jones holds a B.S.B.A. and J.D. from the University of Denver and an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. He holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Carmel College of Nursing, and is a member of the Ohio, District of Columbia, and Colorado Bars.