Helen Jones-Kelley
Charity A. Earley Service Award
Mrs. Helen Jones-Kelley is a licensed attorney who earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Dayton School of Law, Dayton, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary English Education from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio There, she received graduate training in the fields of Sociology and Gerontology.
With a career spanning more than forty years, Ms. Jones-Kelley has served for over fourteen years as the executive director of Montgomery County’s Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board in Dayton, Ohio. Before moving to that position, in addition to other county and city leadership roles, Helen was Special Assistant to the President of Central State University (CSU) where she was responsible for Strategic External Relations and assisted as interim General Counsel and University Secretary to the Board of Trustees. Ms. Jones-Kelley also served as a faculty consultant for Georgetown University’s Center on Juvenile Justice Reform where she engaged with implementation of its Cross-Over Youth Practice Model.
Ms. Jones-Kelley is currently on the Boards of Dayton Children’s Hospital, Sinclair College Foundation, OnMain, Inc., the Special Wish Foundation Advisory Board and the Ohio Federation for Health Equity and Social Justice. She is immediate past president of The Dayton Chapter of The Links, Incorporated and is a founding member of the African American Women’s Giving Circle and Clothes That Work. Jones-Kelley also implemented and served as the first director of the Juvenile Court’s Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program. She also served on the Ohio CASA Board and as Chair of the National CASA Board of Trustees. Previous Board experience includes service as Co- Chair of Parity, Inc. Chair of Miami Valley Hospital, member of the KeyBank Advisory Board, Premier Health, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, the Miami Valley Catholic Education Council, UD Law School Advisory Board and the Ohio Association of Community Behavioral Health Authorities.
Jones-Kelley has received several honors over the course of her career. Among them are being selected as one of the “Ten Top Women” in Dayton and one of the Ten Top African American Women in 2002. She was featured in Essence Magazine in June of 1997 for her CASA service and received Daybreak’s Evangeline Lindsay Award along with SAFY’s Friend of Children honor. She has been honored twice by the YWCA of Greater Dayton, first as a Woman of Influence and subsequently received their Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been honored four times as one of the Dayton Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” and received the John E. Moore Leadership in Diversity Award in 2024. She was recognized as a Miami Valley Urban League Pillar and as an NCCJ Humanitarian Awardee. She was recognized as one of Bing Davis’ “Skyscrapers” in 2024 in which she was honored by a portrait created by local artist, Morris Howard. In 2025, she was honored by Dayton Chamber’s Leadership Dayton Program for Career Nonprofit Board Service and recognized for a second time in Who’s Who in Black Cincinnati.
Helen is married to Thomas E. Kelley, Jr., and they have a blended family which includes four daughters, a son, twelve grandchildren, three grand cats and six grand dogs. She attends Quinn Chapel AME Church. When asked for her favorite quote to live by, she claims two. One by Maya Angelou, “When people show you who they really are, believe them.” The other comes from Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”