As vice president of ESPN Magazine, an author of a new book set for release next year and a top executive at ESPN station, Roxanne Jones may seem to have a charmed career.

“As an African American female, I have felt that people looked at me thinking; What is she doing here? Even at ESPN,”  Jones said, speaking at NYABJ’s High School Journalism Workshop at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus.

But, luck alone didn’t propel Jones’ professional career as a journalist, especially considering where she came from, where she’s been and where she’s headed.

Jones was raised by a single mother and grew up poor with her two siblings in Philadelphia. 

“The only people who truly believed in me were a few librarians and my mother,” she said, adding that everyone else asked “Girl, what (you) doing?”

Jones knew what she was doing. One of Jones’ notable jobs was at the Philadelphia Inquirer where she won numerous awards. Jones jumped to other papers until finally stationing herself at ESPN.  Having developed a reputation as a hard-working journalist producing stellar work, she was recruited by ESPN to help launch the new magazine.

At first, I was a bit (skeptical) but since it was to be fun and exciting, I took …the offer,” she said.

Despite the fact that Jones is the most high profile woman at ESPN, her initial ambition wasn’t to be a sports journalist. She originally studied broadcast journalism at Penn State, got a tv gig. I “didn’t like it,” Jones said.

So she switched to newspapers covering politics. Jones got into sports reporting when she was promoted to assistant sports editor at the Daily News. From there, she was welcomed into a team of journalists working to develop ESPN Magazine.