Chris Jones, Ph.D., announced late Thursday that he is stepping down as executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock after three years at the post.
Deputy Director Errin Stanger, who has been with the Hub since it was established in 2014, will serve as the nonprofit’s acting executive director.
“It has been an outstanding journey, full of rewarding projects and wonderful people. Now it is time for me to start out on a new adventure, a new season,” Jones wrote in an email to Hub patrons, who he thanked. "Because of you, the Innovation Hub has been an amazing combination of entrepreneurship, education, technology, and community development."
The hub is a program of Winrock International of Little Rock.
Jones, a Pine Bluff native, was hired at the hub in 2018. He holds five degrees: a bachelor's in mathematics and a bachelor's in physics from Morehouse College; a master's in nuclear engineering; a master's in technology and policy; and a Ph.D. in urban studies and planning, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He previously served as executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston, as principal at BCT partners and as assistant dean for graduate education at MIT.
