Dr. Jones received her BS degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. She did her undergraduate thesis research developing novel mutagenesis protocols for Sindbis virus under the guidance of Dr. Darcy Russell and in the process, developed a lifelong love of viruses and virology.

She then received her PhD degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University, where she performed her thesis work in the Department of Pathology with Dr. Karl Münger. Her work on DNA tumor viruses introduced her to cancer cell biology and founded her long-term research goals of characterizing the mechanisms that influence the cell fate decision between proliferation (cell division) and differentiation (specialization of function).

To complement her background in biochemistry and expertise in mammalian cell culture, Dr. Jones then went to the University of Sheffield and Stanford University School of Medicine to learn genetics and developmental biology in the laboratories of Prof. Philip Ingham and Dr. Margaret Fuller, respectively. It was during this time that she began to apply what she had learned about tumor initiation and progression to the study of stem cells.