Tishaura Jones

Tishaura Jones

Tishaura Oneda Jones ( tish-ARE-ə; born March 10, 1972) is an American politician who has served as the mayor of St. Louis, Missouri since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Jones served from 2008 to 2013 in the Missouri House of Representatives; and as Treasurer of St. Louis from 2013 to 2021. Born in St. Louis to a former city comptroller, Jones studied at Hampton University in Virginia, returning to St. Louis upon graduating in 1994. Following a failed attempt to start a restaurant that left her bankrupt, she entered nursing, graduating from the Saint Louis University College for Public Health with a Master of Health Administration in 2001 and working for Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital for two years. Jones entered politics in 2002, when she was appointed to the Democratic Party Central Committee for St. Louis's eighth ward. In 2008, she was elected to represent Missouri's 63rd District in the state legislature, defeating independent candidate Nels Williams with 85.4 percent of the vote. After running unopposed for re-election to the House in 2010, Jones ran for St. Louis Treasurer in 2012, and won the general election with 77.9 percent of the vote. She was re-elected as treasurer in 2016 and 2020. As treasurer, Jones was credited with using the office, which had been widely regarded as an unimportant and scandal-ridden bureaucratic position, to start new programs in the city. These include a program that educates citizens on financial literacy, and a program that uses parking meter revenue to give public school kindergarten students a savings account to help them afford college education. Jones also received national attention for her responses to media criticism of her, most notably by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board, which she has variously d

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