Roderick L. Jones is a visionary leader with a record of strengthening and transforming settlement houses across the United States.
Dr. Jones grew up in the Cypress Hills public housing project in East New York, Brooklyn. After studying for a career in law, he found himself drawn to youth work instead. Starting as a frontline youth counselor, he worked his way up through the ranks of settlements in the Rochester, NY area. After rising to management, he helped guide three century-old institutions through a merger, then became president and CEO of the resulting organization. In 2010 he headed west to lead the historic Grace Hill Settlement House in St. Louis in 2010, where he was named Not-for-Profit Leader of the Year by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and The St. Louis American.
When Dr. Jones returned home to New York City to take the reins at Goddard Riverside in 2017, he looked forward to helping young New Yorkers rise up from poverty, as others had helped him: “I grew up in poverty … I know firsthand that although there is opportunity for people in a broad sense, the ability to capitalize on that opportunity is rarely possible without interventions. Settlement houses provide those interventions and make the community a better place for everybody.”
Over his tenure, Dr. Jones has grown Goddard from a $32.5 million budget to $110 million-plus, expanding services to the community while creating economic efficiencies. He oversaw the completion of a merger with the neighboring Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center in 2017, then launched a merger with the Stanley M. Isaacs Center on the Upper East Side that became official in 2025. The latter helped diversify Goddard’s programming for young people, adding the Isaacs Center’s expertise in workforce training to Goddard’s tutoring, college access and Learning to Work programs. This allows the agency to offer young people multiple pathways to adulthood. The Isaacs Center also brought significant strength in food preparation and delivery, helping the combined organization expand its Meals on Wheels services and consolidate food operations across all programs.
Dr. Jones has carried out a number of internal reforms designed to make Goddard a fairer and more rewarding place to work. He has regularized salaries across the agency, removed academic degrees from job requirements to increase the employment of local community members in the change effort where possible, and instituted a system of internal job listings to encourage employees to rise within the organization.
Dr. Jones’s leadership has been recognized by numerous awards and board appointments. He has served on the boards of two major settlement house organizations—United Neighborhood Houses (NY) and the International Federation of Settlements—as well as Homeless Services United. In 2024 he was appointed to the New York City Commission to Strengthen Local Democracy and the national board of PFLAG, the nation’s largest organization for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them. He has been honored as a Nonprofit Trailblazer by City and State Magazine for two years in a row (2024 and ‘25) and was named a Nonprofit Power Player by PoliticsNY and am New York Metro in 2024. He was named a 2021 Whole Health Hero by Empire BlueCross BlueShield and Crain’s New York Business, and received the 2022 Gay City News Impact Award.