Stacie M. Jones, MD
Driven by a profound dedication to children's health and well-being, Director of the Food Allergy Clinical and Research Program at Arkansas Children’s and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Stacie Jones, is a distinguished physician scientist, mother and wife, and tireless advocate for children. Her 30-year career in child health is marked by her deep-seated belief that it is “a true privilege in this life and the best way to go to work every day – surrounded by the hope, joy, promise (and sheer fun) that is inspired by each child” she serves.
A native Arkansan, Dr. Jones' early life in Dumas, Arkansas, inspired and shaped her commitment to family, community, and the significance of collaborative effort. The daughter of an educator/coach and a community service leader, she absorbed the values of hard work, shared goals, and the transformative power of education. This foundation propelled her from Dumas to Hall High School in Little Rock to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Dr. Jones credits her love of science and discovery to the life-changing year following graduation when she was not selected to attend medical school, a year that first introduced her to the world of medical research and the power of discovery – a world she has enthusiastically embraced from that point forward.
Her pursuit of excellence led her to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where she obtained her medical degree in 1989 and completed her pediatric residency in 1992. Furthering her expertise, she completed a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1994, Dr. Jones returned to UAMS and Arkansas Children’s, working her way to the role of Chief of Allergy/Immunology by 2003, serving until 2019. In this capacity, she recruited a team of talented clinicians, teachers, and researchers, growing the section from 4 to 11 faculty, all united by a shared vision: to improve the trajectory of children's lives in Arkansas and beyond, particularly for those facing life-threatening food allergies, asthma, immunodeficiency and health disparities.
Dr. Jones' pioneering and collaborative research has significantly advanced the understanding and treatment of food allergy. Notably, she has been the principal investigator within Arkansas Children's for the NIH-funded Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) since its inception in 2005, serving as the sole woman leader early on, while working to expand funding, growth of women leaders and impact for patients over the subsequent 27 years. She serves as a lead investigator for NIH-funded Immune Tolerance Network trials and has directed or co-directed numerous food allergy therapeutic trials and longitudinal studies targeting disease mechanisms, prevention and drug development. Her team’s exceptional work has garnered over $35 million in research funding from the NIH, USDA, foundations and industry. Her prolific contributions to the scientific literature include over 200 publications in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Lancet, among others.
A testament to her groundbreaking research in food allergy, Dr. Jones, alongside her early career mentor and collaborator, Dr. Wesley Burks, Dean and CEO of UNC Health System, resulted in the publication of the first peanut oral immunotherapy study in the nation in 2009, a landmark achievement performed at Arkansas Children's and Duke University. Following this seminal work, a 17-year span of expansive collaboration across multiple centers and into industry culminated in the first FDA-approved treatment for peanut allergy in children, a significant milestone reached in 2020. This collaborative effort by the Arkansas Children’s Food Allergy team has continually advanced food allergy therapeutics leading to the first FDA-approved treatment for children and adults with multiple food allergies, resulting in designation by National Geographic as one of the “7 breakthroughs that changed medicine in 2024.”
Dr. Jones' unwavering dedication extends beyond her research and clinical work to her extraordinary commitment to mentorship. More than 100 academic faculty and healthcare professionals claim Jones as their mentor, and many of those mentees have become renowned scientists and doctors, academic leaders and administrative visionaries. Her own focused vision, always placing children at the heart of her team's endeavors, has illuminated Arkansas and its people for the world. Through her leadership in medical discovery, the state is increasingly recognized as a place that champions excellence, embraces progress, celebrates diversity and individualism, and, most importantly, demonstrates an enduring commitment to transforming the future of child health. Dr. Jones once said, “to make a real difference in the life and health of a child, you need a heart for adventure, the spirit of an explorer, and a mind that never ceases to imagine ‘what if’ – you need the outlook of a child to never stop reaching”…the true power of discovery.
Photos courtesy of UAMS.
