Jones retires as WIA Director at VGCC

Sylvia Jones of Durham recently retired as Director of the Workforce Investment Act department at Vance-Granville Community College. Her colleagues held a retirement reception in her honor on Jan. 29 at the college’s Main Campus. She is pictured above with members of the WIA department staff (from left, Helen Bradby, Courtney Cooke, Willie Mae Foster Hill, Jones, Denise Davis and Blondelle Edgerton; not pictured: Claire Griggs).  Jones said that working with such dedicated professionals made her more than 23 years at VGCC a pleasure. “One of the rewards of working in this department has been to assist students as they successfully pursued a new career,” Jones added. “Many of these students enrolled in WIA after being laid off from an employer in this area that downsized or closed, and we helped them to return to employment.”

Jones holds a bachelor’s degree from Bennett College for Women and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. She joined VGCC in 1989 to coordinate the Job Training Partnership Act program, the name of which later changed to Workforce Investment Act. Previously, she worked in workforce development at Robeson Community College and Piedmont Community College, and retired with a total of 30 years of service in the community college system. Jones is a graduate of the North Carolina Community College Leadership Program and was named the college’s Staff Member of the Year in 2003. For many years, she chaired the college’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrations. Jones was president of the North Carolina Employment and Training Association from 2002-2004 and served on that organization’s board for 20 years.