Feb. 27, 2003 – Ramona Jones is the new special adviser on economic policy in the U.S. Interior Department's Insular Affairs Office. Her job is to promote private sector investment and economic development in the nation's territories and freely associated states.
The appointment was announced by Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary David Cohen in a release issued Wednesday.
The insular areas comprise the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands and the freely associated states of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.
Jones, who grew up in Guam and on the island of Tinian in the Northern Marianas, belongs to the indigenous Chamarro group. Her appointment reflects a move to include territorial natives in the Insular Affairs Office. Cohen and director Nikolao Pula have their roots in Samoa.
An international business and finance graduate of the University of San Francisco, Jones was deputy White House liaison at the State Department under Colin Powell. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, she was promoted to the White House to assist with the Office of Homeland Security and other agencies working on security issues.
She was subsequently named director of special projects in the Investment and Economic Growth Department of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., which provides loans, loan guarantees and political risk insurance to U.S. businesses investing in developing countries. At OPIC, she worked with the government of Palau on an agreement allowing OPIC to fund and insure projects there.
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