{"id":13805,"date":"2026-10-20T09:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/?p=13805"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:20:08","slug":"celebrating-a-health-care-pioneer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/2026\/10\/20\/celebrating-a-health-care-pioneer\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating a health care pioneer\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Michael Jones (center) attends the 2025 Jefferson Club Golden Quill Alumni Excellence Awards ceremony.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week, distinguished Mizzou alum Dr. Michael Jones<\/a>, BA \u201986, MD \u201997, will be recognized at the Crohn\u2019s & Colitis Foundation\u2019s Night for a Cure<\/a> with the prestigious Uniting to Care & Cure Award. This honor reflects his proven excellence in research and patient care.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A native of Kansas City, Mo., Dr. Jones comes from a family dedicated to health care. His father was a urologist, and his mother was a nurse. He followed his parents\u2019 example of service and care for patients. He met his wife, Lillian Mitchell-Jones, BA \u201986, at Mizzou while both were undergraduates in biological sciences. Their three sons, Christian Jones, BA \u201913; Andrew Jones, BS \u201921; and Benjamin Jones, BS \u201921, followed in their footsteps as Tigers, with Andrew and Benjamin continuing the family tradition as third-generation physicians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now based in the Cincinnati area, Dr. Jones is the vice president and director of clinical research at Tri-State Gastroenterology Associates. As a distinguished clinician, he saves and improves lives and has served as principal investigator in over 55 clinical trials. Dr. Jones attributes his four years in the School of Medicine to gaining valuable insight and leadership skills\u00a0through his involvement in pre-medicine clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Clockwise<\/a>
Clockwise from top left: Dr. Jones and family celebrate at Match Day in 1997; Dr. Jones and Lillian Mitchell-Jones attend the 2025 Jefferson Club Dinner; Dr. Sara Walker explains a patient case to Dr. Jones and Dr. David Hockman as fourth-year medical students in 1997.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His leadership extends beyond the U.S., through a profound commitment to service. He and Lillian sponsor four\u00a0students\u00a0in Kenya, covering their tuition, food and supplies.\u00a0Several\u00a0mission trips have allowed them to see their generosity in action, advancing the students\u2019 educational opportunities and future success.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Jones remains deeply connected to Mizzou. He\u2019s served on the Jefferson Club Board of Trustees, as a cabinet member on the successful Our Time to Lead campaign and on the NextGen Precision Medicine Advisory Board. He and Lillian also support the next generation of physicians<\/a> through the School of Medicine\u2019s Pathways to Success Program<\/a>, as well as the PBL-25 Scholarship Fund<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are proud to count Dr. Jones among our 376,000+ global alumni and to celebrate his contributions to the School of Medicine\u2019s more than 150-year tradition of excellence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Mun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, distinguished Mizzou alum Dr. Michael Jones, BA \u201986, MD \u201997, will be recognized at the Crohn\u2019s & Colitis Foundation\u2019s Night for a Cure with the prestigious Uniting to Care & Cure Award. This honor reflects his proven excellence in research and patient care.\u00a0 A native of Kansas City, Mo., Dr. Jones comes from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13805"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13811,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13805\/revisions\/13811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}