DC History Conference 2025

Jon and his co-panelists, Joyce Ladner, Author and Former Professor at Howard University, Michael Fauntroy, Associate Professor of Policy and Government and Founding Director of the Race, Politics, and Policy Center at George Mason University, and Frank Smith, Founder and Executive Director of the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC, will participate in a panel presentation titled “Crisis of Self Governance: DC’s Financial Control Board 30 Years On.” The panel will be moderated by Amanda Huron, Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Political Science at the University of the District of Columbia.

The panelists will address current concerns over threats to the District’s self-governance within the historical framing of Congress’s creation of a Financial Control Board in the 1990s to address DC’s financial crisis. In keeping with the DC History Conference’s theme of considering the District’s past, present, and future, the panelists will discuss the Board’s legacy and its impacts, both celebrated and controversial, on self-governance and economic recovery.

Jon served as Chief Counsel to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Democratic Staff Director of the House DC Subcommittee. He was on the Congresswoman’s staff during the Control Board years.