Kim
Jones.
Educator. Collaborator. Advocate.
Great teaching changes lives. Kim brings classroom experience and a passion for public education to conversations that inspire educators and strengthen communities.
Invite Kim to Your Event ↗
A voice rooted
in the classroom.
Hear Kim’s perspective in her keynote address celebrating the 60th anniversary of North Carolina Governor’s School.
Full keynote recording · NC Governor’s School Foundation
Watch on YouTube ↗Education opened doors.
Now she opens them for others.
Kim grew up in Erwin, North Carolina, where her mother, her first and best teacher, nurtured her love of learning. Education carried her to Wake Forest University and into a career devoted to helping students shape their own futures.
Her commitment to literacy is personal. Seeing the barriers her father faced after graduating from high school without being able to read helped shape her purpose as an English teacher.
Today, that purpose connects her classroom at Chapel Hill High School with her work supporting rural educators: every student deserves the opportunity, independence, and possibility a powerful education can provide.
Discover the story behind Kim’s work ↗A classroom voice.
A wider impact.
Kim brings the perspective of a practicing educator to statewide service and professional learning, helping connect decisions about education with the people they affect.
NC State Health Plan
Governor-appointed member of the Board of Trustees, bringing an educator’s perspective to healthcare for teachers and state employees.
Meet the trustees ↗School accountability
Member of North Carolina’s Task Force on Accountability for Public School Units, contributing to the work of rethinking how school success is measured.
Explore the task force ↗State Board of Education
Served as a teacher advisor through June 2025, advocating for the resources and opportunities every public school student deserves.
Read Kim’s closing remarks ↗Holocaust & human rights
A regional site director for TOLI and a PBS education consultant, Kim helps educators connect literature, history, identity, and human rights.
Read her professional profile ↗Dudley Flood Center
Through the Center’s Rural Teacher Leadership Network, Kim leads Eastern North Carolina rural educators in strengthening their practice and expanding opportunity for students.
Read Kim’s rural education perspective ↗Ideas worth sharing.
Keeping experienced teachers in the classroom
Kim discusses teacher pay and why recruiting new educators must go hand in hand with retaining experienced teachers.
Read the coverage ↗Education funding and teacher retention
A conversation about teacher retention and North Carolina’s public education funding needs.
Listen to the interview ↗Public schools are a public trust
Kim’s published remarks from her final State Board of Education meeting as an advisor on June 5, 2025.
Read her remarks ↗Graduate School hooding speaker
Wake Forest introduces Kim as its 2024 Graduate School hooding speaker.
View the speaker profile ↗Who Belongs?
Listed seminar facilitator for “Jewish Identity, the Holocaust, and the American Promise” in Philadelphia.
View the seminar program ↗Hear directly from Kim
Visit Kim’s YouTube channel to explore her videos and follow her work in public education.
Visit Kim’s YouTube channel ↗Conversations that
move education forward.
Classroom experience, personal perspective, and practical questions for schools, conferences, and communities.
Keeping great teachers
Why recruitment and retention belong together, and how working conditions, professional respect, and teacher voice shape the future of our schools.
Opening doors for every student
Connecting a rural upbringing with classroom practice and advocacy for access to challenging courses, strong teaching, and meaningful opportunity.
Teaching difficult history
Using literature, inquiry, and historical context to help students examine identity, understand injustice, and engage thoughtfully with the world.
Preparing students to shape the future
Keeping judgment, empathy, communication, and adaptability at the center of education as technology changes how we learn and work.
Recognized for the difference she makes.
Publicly published praise for Kim’s teaching and leadership, alongside honors that recognize her work in education.
“Mrs. Jones is the ‘teacher leader’ every principal wants to have on their faculty.”
Charles Blanchard
Retiring Chapel Hill High School principal, April 2023Read the published recommendation ↗
“Every school needs a Mrs. Jones.”
Catherine Truitt
North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction at the time, April 2023Read the award announcement ↗
- 2022–2023
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
District award history ↗
Teacher of the Year - 2023
North Central Regional
Regional award announcement ↗
Teacher of the Year - April 2023
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
State award announcement ↗
North Carolina Teacher of the Year - November 2023
North Carolina Attorney General’s
Dogwood Award announcement ↗
Dogwood Award
Let’s start a conversation.
For conferences, schools, and communities.
Bring Kim’s perspective to your next event.