Pardee Welcomes Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (‘03) to Talk Leadership and Public Service
On December 15, 2025, the Honorable Gina Ortiz Jones (Pardee ‘03), San Antonio’s 69th Mayor as of June 7th this year, visited the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies for a Q&A discussion. She was joined by International Relations students, faculty, fellow BU alumni, and ROTC affiliates, many of whom with personal connections to San Antonio. This visit was co-organized with Initiative on Cities (IOC).
Jones reflected on her formative years at BU; from the tests she took to having to sign “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” papers. She credited her East Asian Studies major for guiding her understanding of economies, histories, and military associations in Asian countries, which now inform contemporary dealings with larger countries, such as China. She recalled a school trip to Mozambique, where her encounters with all-male leadership and language barriers between them made a great impression on her, not only as a person but as a civil servant.
Throughout the conversation, Jones returned to key questions that drive her current work as Mayor, “Who am I not hearing from? And why am I not hearing from them? These are the people most in need of our advocacy.” San Antonio, she shared, is the 7th largest city in the United States, but is the 3rd most impoverished. While the federal government is working to take away resources such as SNAP benefits or medicare, Jones emphasized that her job as a leader is to keep people safe and, now more than ever, must anticipate adjusting to a changing economic landscape and prepare for the potential risks.
She gave insight into the city’s upcoming projects, including an expansion of the San Antonio International Airport and a new sports arena, called Project Marvel, that will be home to the San Antonio Spurs and the first publicly financed stadium. She underlined that major investments such as these are emotional as well as economic in nature. And while these projects will rejuvenate the look and draw of the city, Major Jones shared that the study behind these projects was not independent and therefore unevenly benefited the community. She fought for the study data to be shared with the community stating, “we deserve better, this would not happen in other cities.” Jones went on to share her plans for moving San Antonio’s voting day from May to November, in hopes for an accessible, higher voter turnout. “We could have better if we had better representation.”
Mayor Jones concluded the Q&A by sharing her advice on leadership, “be kind, work hard, be so good they cannot ignore you, lastly, do the damn thing. Do the BA program, be a 22 year old with a masters in economics, just do it.”
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is the 69th Mayor of San Antonio, making her the first openly gay person to hold office. Jones received an Air ROTC scholarship to study at Boston University in 1999. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies and economics and a master’s degree in economics in 2003. In the subsequent years, she earned postgraduate degrees from the University of Kansas and the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies. With an extensive career in national security and financial services, Jones has served as an intelligence officer, senior strategic planner, senior advisor, and director of investment in several federal agencies. She formerly served as under secretary of the Air Force under the Biden administration.
Learn more about Jones’s election victory in this New York Times report.