Sidney Jones founded IPAC in 2013 and served as director until stepping down in June 2021. She continues to serve as senior advisor. Between 2002 and 2013, Jones worked with the International Crisis Group, first as Southeast Asia project director, then from 2007 as senior adviser to the Asia program. Before joining Crisis Group, she worked for the Ford Foundation in Jakarta and New York (1977-84); Amnesty International in London as the Indonesia-Philippines-Pacific researcher (1985-88); and Human Rights Watch in New York as the Asia director (1989-2002). She holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She lived in Shiraz, Iran for one year as a university student, 1971-72, and studied Arabic in Cairo and Tunisia. She received an honorary doctorate in 2006 from the New School in New York. In addition to an ongoing role at IPAC, Jones is teaching, writing and reconnecting with her old neighbourhood in Brooklyn.