6 minute read
Dr. Ashanti Jones
Influenced By Others Dr. Ashanti Jones
By: Rhiana Thomas
Ashanti Jones is what you may consider a “woman of letters”. Wife of Frederick “Fred” Jones. She currently resides in Northern Louisiana. I was able to get a chance to do a thorough interview with Jones last week, and needless to say, she did not disappoint!
Ashanti Franklin Jones is an African American Physical Therapist who got her first start believe it or not, in her early childhood. You know what they say, “it all starts from home”. She described growing up “in a home filled with love and a “free spirited environment” where she would be allowed to draw on the walls with chalk. Her two-parent household had no strict dynamic. She lived a middle-class lifestyle, her mom being a teacher and her dad holding the title of the head provider.
Fast-forwarding to her current home dynamic, Jones is happily married and she claims he “brings out the best” in her. They began dating when she was 17, and together they have 3 children: Sydney Marie Jones, 11, Sophie Marie Jones, 9, and Frederick Douglas Jones II, 4.
Back to her early home life, creativity was encouraged and throughout her adolescent years in regards to her academic life, Jones was what you would label as the “average student”. It was not until later in her early childhood that she allowed the school system to influence her mindset on school achievements. As the conversation progressed, we discussed the educational system’s reward formula and how positive reinforcement a/effects a child’s academic life.
A young Ashanti (who at the time generally did not stress over making straight A’s), experienced this concept first hand during her elementary school’s award ceremonies. “I would see other kids continually going back and forth getting awards, and I thought, that could be me,” she explained. This officially marked the beginning of her GPA shift. In junior high, Jones pursued more extracurricular activities such as band and cheerleading while maintaining an “A” average GPA.
It wasn’t until her sophomore year in high school that her introduction to HOSA, Health Occupations Students of America, an organization that provides students interested in the medical field opportunities to enrich their knowledge of health career pathways and participate in national medical related competitions, that she mentally established her desired career: physical therapy. During one particular experience shadowing workers in a hospital, she got the chance to view physical therapists practicing therapeutic activities, such as dynamic balance training displayed as tossing balls back and forth to one another. She was curious stating, “what job pays professionals to play with balls”, she laughs. Little did she know that there was so much more involved in this activity. Upon her 1999 high school graduation, she immediately enrolled in a Summer Prep Program the same year. She graduated from a HBCU, Dillard University of New Orleans, LA in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science degree and started a Master of Physical Therapy (P.T.) program later that same year in August at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, TX.
Prior to applying to PT school, Jones recalled an account where her advisor encouraged her to have a “plan b” and pick another career choice because PT school was very difficult to get into. This was extremely discouraging to her, but she leveraged that disappointment by putting more time and energy into being prepared to apply the following fall. Obtaining a 3.89 GPA and very competitive GRE scores, she applied to both the University of Texas Medical Branch and Texas Woman’s University. I’m pretty sure by now it’s not a shocker that she was accepted into both! Naturally, she chose UTMB because it was closer to Lake Charles, Louisiana, her hometown, at the time. UTMB was a complete culture shift to Ashanti. She came from a Historically Black University, to a predominantly white institution. “Everything was different--down to the food I ate.” she said. Regardless, she rose above her adversaries and persevered. Needless to say, she graduated in Decem-
ber 2005, with a Master of Physical Therapy degree. From here, Jones later went back to school at the University of the Incarnate World, in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2014.
In Dr. Jones’s recent years, she took employment with Kindred Health Care. She started as P.T, providing care to patients in their homes, until she was promoted to a management position. She began managing the rehab sectors of Kindred’s Home Health Agencies across the areas of North Louisiana and Southern Arkansas. After a year, she was promoted to cover a greater area including the entire state of Arkansas and North and parts of South Louisiana. This position allowed her to manage all aspects of rehab including billing, documentation, policy development, interprofessional relationship management, marketing, training and education as an instructor for the company’s vestibular rehabilitation program as well as their cardiopulmonary rehab program. Managing 65+ clinicians, Dr. Jones reports, she gained a wealth of experience in this role and did a lot of traveling. Her experiences in this role led her to discover her passion for education and exposed her to the real value of a good training. This landed her in her new role at the University of Louisiana Monroe in 2020.
Doctor Ashanti Jones presently serves as ULM’s Director of Clinical Education for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. She is responsible for developing the clinical education program, which includes securing affiliation agreements with over 200 clinical sites for students, curriculum development, and managing multitudes of clinicians. One of her newer projects involves her networking with University faculty members to work on things needed to set up a curriculum for students for interprofessional education. In addition, she is working on a HBCU pipeline to PT school program to better prepare students from HBCUs to be a stronger applicant for PT school. She also does guest speaking and student mentoring. In fact, this was how I personally met Dr. Jones, by her guest speaking at my high school, Carroll. She spoke to us about her academic journey and her current duties at ULM and encourages us to continue to work hard to achieve our dream careers. She also asked us to never stop learning. In fact, she is currently working on a second Doctorate degree, specifically a Doctor of Education degree with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction. Jones credits her faith for the strength required to travel the journey to where she is today. She states that she constantly reminds herself that God will never put more on her than she can bear and that in her weakest and most defeated moments God’s strength is sufficient. It was honestly a pleasure interviewing her, and she is a very sweet, educated woman. This is definitely not the last time you will hear of her!
MY SHELTER PETS ARE MY BIGGEST FANS
LOGAN RYAN WITH LEO AND JULIUS: ADOPTED 2014 AND 2018.
They’re a little bit of a lot of things, but they’re all pure love.
THESHELTERPETPROJECT.ORG
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