She is the president and Johnston Family Professor for Religion and Democracy at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

Serene's younger sister Kindy Jones is Assistant Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma.

Her youngest sister, Verity Jones, is a former Disciples of Christ pastor and editor of DisciplesWorld.

On July 1, 2008, Jones succeeded Joseph Hough as President of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School and chair of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.