Dr. Malcolm Jones is  an academic and industry physiologist and health justice advocate. He is the postdoctoral director of Health Innovation at the Iovine Young Academy. He is also the creator and director of the Flight Lab, a gold standard human performance lab with a mission to make sports science more accessible in the international flagship store of the Jordan Brand under Nike Inc. Jones is also the director of Health Research for Better Watts Inc., a non-profit that catalyzes environmental justice by supporting solutions rooted in social determinants of health in the Greater Watts community of South Central Los Angeles through lived experiences, academic expertise, and creative cultural programming. 

Jones received his PhD from the Clinical Exercise Research Center within the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California. Here he taught therapeutic exercise techniques and the physiology of physical therapy to doctoral physical therapy students. Within this lab he also led a summer course called "Moving Minds & Bodies through Sports Medicine and Health" to expand the idea of what it means to be a scientist/clinician to high school students. In addition to these roles, Malcolm serves as a mentor for students of multiple organizations including the YMCA to engage young people to science through innovative avenues. 

Jones completed his Bachelor of Science at Emory University where he received the Innovative Health Student of the Year award upon graduation; and his Master of Science at the University of Southern California. 

Using virtual reality exergaming to develop interventions to combat age or disease-related cognitive decline: To understand how to prevent or remediate cognitive dysfunction, a core branch of Jones’ research is aimed at identifying non-pharmacological, lifestyle interventions that may combat age and disease-related cognitive decline. For his current dissertation work, he has pursued exercise as a lifestyle intervention with promise for disease modification with deliberate and observable benefits to brain health. The targeted brain regions for rehabilitation are largely based on previous works in healthy older adults and individuals with cognitive impairment that demonstrate that exercise, in addition to other lifestyle factors, may be effective at recovering or mitigating brain dysfunction and cognitive decline. Pairing this strong research with the emerging field of virtual reality gaming provides an abundant source of funding and visibility for this innovative solution to cognitive decline that plagues our aging world.

Using sport/athletics to inform general medical/health intervention: Over the last five decades, the increasing cost burden of athletes unable to compete has provided significant visibility and funding for health and medical research surrounding high performing athletes. While this research is goaded by sport, it inevitably trickles to benefit the health and medical advancement of the general population. Thus, a branch of Jones’ research interests have been to identify high level concerns in sport such as concussion and hamstring injuries in order to acquire funding/interests to create solutions for such problems that can innovatively be translated to the general population.

Using university resources to end health disparities for underserved communities: Community-based participatory research/community-partnered participatory research (CBPR/CPRR) is viewed as a critical approach for improving health and addressing inequities found in under-resourced communities by pairing community partners and academic partners to address health and environmental concerns. As health disparity in underserved groups continues to increase exponentially, there is no current solution to attenuate this concern. Jones’ community research focuses on how universities have the resources and relationships to provide sustainable solutions to combat such health disparity. In a recent publication in the Journal of Ethnicity and Disease, he outlines an innovative framework for leveraging a university’s position to address the root causes of community inequities and thus create more sustained partnerships that achieve greater impact within their surrounding communities.

Collaborative Prototyping in Health Innovation (Capstone) 

Hoague, D., Jones, M., Spriggs, R., Wong, M., Johnson, F., Catalan, E., ... & Norris, K. (2023). Facilitating Equitable Distribution of Justice40 Initiative Funding for Lead in Drinking Water. Environmental Justice.

Jones, M., Hoague, D., Spriggs, R., Catalan, E., Adams, N., Watkins, T., ... &amp; Norris, K. C. (2022). Establishing a Framework for Sustainable Community Action Research. Ethnicity &amp; Disease, 32(4), 333-340.

Jones, M., Dominguez, J. F., Macatugal, C., Coleman, K., Reed, B., &amp; Schroeder, E. T. (2022). Low Load With BFR vs. High Load Without BFR Eccentric Hamstring Training Have Similar Outcomes on Muscle Adaptation. The Journal of Strength &amp; Conditioning Research.

Castle, S., Lee, C. C., Blanchard, E. H., Roberts, C. K., Jones, M. J., &amp; Schroeder, E. T. (2019). Feasibility of Virtual Reality Treadmill Training in older adults with Mobility and Fitness Deficits. Innovation in Aging, 3(Suppl 1), S9 

Jones, M., Guzman, S., Medrano &amp; Schroeder, E. T. (2023). Acute Effects of a Single Dose of β-alanine Supplementation on Performance. The Journal of Strength &amp; Conditioning Research. (Pending Publication)

Student Who Came to LA for Kidney Transplant Makes: NBC 

Eyewitness Newsmakers examines environmental hazards at Jordan High School in Watts 

Faculty

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