Honoring a Woman of Vision: 2026 Women of Vision Honoree Sonya Pryor Jones

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Greater Cleveland Chapter (NCBW-GCC) is pleased to announce that Sonya Pryor Jones has been selected as a 2026 Women of Vision Honoree. She will be formally recognized during the 35th Annual Women of Vision Awards and Scholarship Reception, an evening dedicated to celebrating women whose leadership, innovation, and advocacy are shaping the future of our communities.

The Women of Vision Award honors leaders whose careers, contributions, and commitment reflect a clear-eyed dedication to equity, progress, and the uplift of those around them. These are women who do not simply respond to the needs of their communities — they anticipate them, organize around them, and build lasting systems to address them.

Sonya Pryor Jones is that kind of leader. An educator, facilitator, strategist, and entrepreneur, she has spent her career moving between classrooms, boardrooms, city halls, and community spaces — always with the same question at the center: How do we make sure people, especially young people, have what they need to thrive?

A Cleveland native from the Glenville neighborhood and a graduate of Cleveland public schools, Sonya’s roots in this city run deep. She carries those roots into every role she has held. Most recently, she served as Chief for Youth and Family Success under Mayor Justin Bibb, advising the 58th Mayor of Cleveland on quality-of-life issues from birth through aging. In that role, she helped architect the city’s first donor-advised fund for violence prevention, chaired the Neighborhood Safety Fund committee, and served as Principal Investigator for the Department of Justice violence prevention grant, Cleveland Thrive.

Before returning to Cleveland, Sonya served as Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at MIT’s Fab Foundation, where she managed a $10 million STEM partnership with Chevron and launched a mobile STEM education program serving more than 6,000 students in partnership with the Boston Celtics and the GE Foundation. She secured $2.5 million to develop an online professional development platform for K-12 educators and to establish fab labs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Her earlier work in Northeast Ohio laid important groundwork. As inaugural Director of the Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood at the Sisters of Charity Foundation and later as Executive Director of MC2 STEM Hub, she helped design and open two STEM high schools, secured more than $3.5 million in funding, and supported over a dozen STEM programs across the region.

Sonya holds a master’s degree in education from Cleveland State University and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Kenyon College. She is a CORO Executive Fellow, a German Marshall Memorial Fellow, a 2016 White House Champion of Change, a 2025–2027 Ashe Fellow, and a BCDI Fellow. She currently serves as Board Chair of Mantles and Makers Inc. and as a Beyond100K Strategic Advisor.

She leads by a motto that speaks for itself: Tribe, Love, Courage. In Sonya Pryor Jones, NCBW-GCC is proud to honor a woman who has lived those words — in service to Cleveland, to young people, and to the belief that every community deserves a champion willing to do the work.

About the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. — Greater Cleveland Chapter

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. (NCBW) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1981. The Greater Cleveland Chapter advocates on behalf of Black women and girls, advancing leadership development and gender equity through programming focused on health, education, economic empowerment, and civic engagement. Guided by a vision of a world free from socioeconomic inequity, NCBW-GCC fosters sisterhood, strengthens communities, and prepares the next generation of leaders for a bright future. For more information, visit nc100bwgc.org or follow us on Instagram at @ncbwinc.greater.