ELECTION NIGHT 2022 was historic for the city of Newport News, Virginia. Phillip Jones MPP/MBA 2021 had become the city’s 27th and youngest directly elected mayor at 32 years old.
Not only was Jones a political novice, but he prevailed over three city councilmembers with tenures in local government. He was four decades younger than his 72-year-old predecessor, the city’s incumbent, who did not seek a fourth term. Jones represented a landmark change in leadership and generational representation for Newport News, a city whose historical naval economy and renowned research centers for nuclear physics are often overshadowed by challenges with crime and a poverty rate over 3% higher than the U.S. average.
For Jones, a Newport News native, pursuing executive leadership in City Hall was part of a broader ambition to make a difference in his home community. “My vision was to bring innovation to City Hall, continue leading the region’s economic engine through our science and technology business partners, and elevate Newport News on a national level,” Jones says.
It’s an ambition rooted in his commitment to public service. Jones, the son of two U.S. Air Force colonels, served six years with the U.S. Marine Corps before enrolling in the joint MPP/MBA program at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School in 2018. “I loved every single day of leading my fellow servicemen,” Jones says. “However, the great advantage of public service is it allows me to increase the scope of my work.”
“In our roles as leaders, whether in government or business or of a platoon, we are entrusted with the responsibility to serve the needs of our community, the greater good.”
Like many of his classmates, Jones experienced the disruption of the pandemic, returning to Newport News in spring 2020 to take classes remotely. During that time, he re-engaged with residents, turning to community functions to better understand their perspectives. After graduating in 2021, Jones spent time in public sector management consulting before heeding the call to run for local office. Jones believes that not only does political leadership benefit from interdisciplinary, cross-sector experience, it’s the future of governance: “In our roles as leaders, whether in government or business or of a platoon, we are entrusted with the responsibility to serve the needs of our community, the greater good. In the future, issues will be solved by people who can speak to industry, as well as have a firm grasp on nonprofit and public sectors.”
Jones’ campaign was built on deliberateness: he connected with residents to learn about their challenges, drew on his business acumen, outraised his competitors, and elevated efficiency, seeking insights from former governors and mayors to avoid pitfalls. He used what he learned from his military, consultant, and Harvard days on the campaign trail. “Other schools make managers, but Harvard has an ethos of developing leaders who make a difference in the world. I’d planned on running for three or four years and I had my Harvard Kennedy School notebook that listed my plans for the first 100 days. Then four days before I was sworn in, we had a school shooting. I realized you can make all the plans in the world, but things happen, and you have to be able to pivot,” says Jones.
As Jones set his sights on city priorities, improving education, investing in public safety, and modernizing City Hall, he turned to Harvard to continue learning and fueling his administration. Immediately after his November 2022 election, he joined the 2023 class of the Program for New Mayors: First 100 Days—a collaborative offering of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, the Institute of Politics HKS, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In sessions at HKS, Jones connected with other recently elected mayors, discussing teaching cases and gleaning insights from faculty and other experts on overcoming common obstacles to navigating the transition into office. Three HKS students also joined Jones in Newport News in January 2023 as part of the Taubman Center Transition Term program, which gives students the chance to learn from and with new mayors and governors.
Within months, Jones joined the class of 2024 of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative—a yearlong executive education program that trains 40 domestic and international mayors and their senior leaders each year and was formed as a collaboration between HKS, Harvard Business School, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Now in its eighth year, the initiative combines virtual sessions with an intensive classroom experience, providing public management and leadership training to help participants advance key capabilities within their city halls and improve outcomes for residents. As part of the initiative’s Collaboration track, Jones put forward a team of key representatives with government, business, military, and nonprofit backgrounds to learn together and develop effective entry points for a long-term project to revitalize downtown Newport News. “The Bloomberg Harvard program is helping me and our team develop plans for strategic investments in Newport News,” Jones says. “By taking learnings from best-practice governance research and putting them into immediate practice, we’re able to improve quality of life for residents while also building our leadership muscles.”
Jones uses his learnings to mold his approach to public governance: creating a unity of strategic command while also empowering collaboration. “As mayor, it is my responsibility to work in partnership with City Council, city leadership, and community stakeholders to cultivate a unified approach to build our city forward.”
When a school shooting at a local elementary school rocked the nation days before his inauguration, Jones broke down operational silos between the school board and City Council to fund nearly three million dollars in school safety measures.
Now having settled into his term, Jones is also laying the foundation to reduce gun violence by creating a new Community Safety office to centralize best-practice prevention guidance within City Hall and support synchronized efforts by city leaders and hospitals to address underlying issues and meet immediate medical needs. By promoting an internal culture of streamlined communication and interdepartmental coordination, Jones aims to cultivate collaboration and deploy vetted procedures in moments of crisis. Back at Harvard, the experience of Jones’ first days in office, when his ambitious agenda collided with the devastating school shooting, formed the heart of a new teaching case, “Newport News: Breakthrough Expectations,” for leaders and students to study and discuss.
Jones underscored his focus on empowering the community during his State of the City Address in March 2024, demonstrating some of the public narrative lessons he absorbed at Harvard, when he remarked, “Tonight is not about me. This is not my state of the city, it’s our state of the city.”
Jones intended to include not only the city’s business and civic leaders, residents, and community organizations—but also an important set of often overlooked stakeholders: youth. Deeming 2024 the “Year of the Youth,” Jones set an ambition to improve the city’s schools, including a call to action for the community to support youth development, mentorship, and civic engagement opportunities. He knows that investing in next-generation change agents even younger than himself will be intrinsic to ushering in next-generation innovation to Newport News.
Jones’ journey is an invitation for aspiring leaders to view city governance as the best “command post” for making an immediate impact on critical issues. Of the 37% of 2023 HKS graduates employed in the public and IGO sectors, only 4% entered city, local, or regional government. Jones argues that more of his fellow alumni should consider local office: “By holding office, amplifying the voices of youth, promoting inclusion and community involvement, and engaging residents of all ages and backgrounds, we can strengthen the democratic process and ensure that everyone can be heard.”
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Banner and inline images courtesy of Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University; portrait courtesy of Newport News, VA, Mayor’s Office.