Dr. Deborah Jones received her bachelor's degree from Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia, and her master's and doctoral degrees in adult and higher education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following completion of her undergraduate education, she worked in the Division of Educational Measurement and Research at the Association of American Medical Colleges for five years before going to the University of North Carolina for her graduate work. After three years as a graduate fellow she took a position as health educator and later administrator of educational programs in the Cancer Department of the American College of Surgeons. In 1986 she joined the staff of the Office of Continuing Education at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and in 1987 became director of that office. She remained in this position until the summer of 1994.