Jaquenese A. Barnes Price, Class of 1969

Community Leader

Jaquenese grew up in Tucson’s Dunbar Spring and “Sugar Hill” neighborhoods, born into a family of highly respected iconic social and political activists who laid the foundation that inspired her to want to make a difference in the world.

At Tucson High School, she was a song leader on the Pom Squad; a member of the Red Cross; a Homecoming Queen finalist and Junior Cabinet (guard and assistant) for graduating seniors; a participant in GAA, the Girls Athletic Association; a homeroom representative.

Enrolling at the University of Arizona she became the school’s first African American member of the UA Pom-Line, an accomplishment that has featured her in the African American Museum of Southern Arizona as a pioneer in the university’s history.

For her contributions to the university, she has received a Distinguished Leadership Award and an Outstanding Alumni Achiever Award and was a nominee for the Billy Joe Varney Award which recognizes a person’s career of service to the University of Arizona.

After earning a BA in sociology at the university and later a master’s degree in educational leadership at Northern University, Mrs. Barnes Price has devoted time to the Sugar Hill Neighborhood Committee to help keep the spirit of the area alive and has helped organize MLK Celebrations and worked on a Black Women’s Task Force, a winner of its “Shero” Award.

She’s also received the NAACP’s Civil Rights Award, the Coalition de Derechos- Humanos Corazon de Justicia Award and the UA Distinguished Leadership Award.

Serving as a Mapping Racist Covenant advisory board member, she played a role in putting racist covenants in Tucson and the nation in perspective which led to a law being signed by our governor of Arizona, Katie Hobbs.

As a Human Resources Organizational Consultant, Mrs. Barnes Price has been in the business of recruiting out and advising, in helping people improve their lives – as she says – “a quiet warrior and passionate person when it comes to the rights of all those that are underserved.”

She has served the city of Tucson well. And is still doing so.