Jones has provided humanitarian aid around the world, including Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast.

[3] She received a doctorate in American literature and intellectual history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison[3] in 1970, and taught English at City College of New York from 1970 to 1973.

She served as coordinator of women's studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1973–1975) and was a member of the writing faculty at Mount Holyoke College (1986–1997).

[10] When Love Goes Wrong.,[11] which Jones co-wrote with Susan Schechter, was intended as a resource for women suffering from abuse.

[12] Kabul in Winter,[14] written about Jones' experience in Afghanistan in 2002 and her observations of a city utterly destroyed by war, warlords and the Taliban where she felt a need to try to pick up the pieces.