Meet Jill.
I grew up in Washington, DC and spent my childhood playing all kinds of sports. As an undergraduate at Harvard, I had the good fortune to have amazing mentors, combined with an extraordinary education and a rigorous introduction to service learning. Plus, I got to play rugby!
After college, I ran Harvard's Public Service Program for a year, taught swimming in remote communities along the Kuskokwim River in Alaska, and, after moving to the Bay Area, even worked briefly as a socially responsible stock broker. At age 23, not knowing any better, I launched the Museum of Children's Art, building interactive spaces where children and their families can create, share and connect through art.
At 31, while pregnant with my oldest child, I started Playworks after an encounter with a principal who was frustrated by her recent experience disciplining three boys who'd gotten in trouble at recess. She was concerned that because of recess, these boys were coming to see themselves as bad kids. I realized that had I not gotten a chance to run around at school every day, I would have had a really hard time succeeding. And I could see how through just a few small tweaks in how school recess was structured, we could deliver an outsized impact on the experience these kids had at school. In 2015-16, I got to spend a year as a fellow at the Stanford d.school, and as a result co-founded Substantial, a nonprofit that helps improve the substitute teaching experience for everyone.
Then in March 2020 the pandemic closed schools, and with them, recess. Playworks had to reinvent itself overnight while cutting deep: furloughs, layoffs, and a scramble for PPP funding. It was the hardest stretch of my professional life, and it taught me things about leadership through crisis that no growth year ever could. It also clarified something I'd been circling for a while: that my best contribution was no longer running one organization, but helping many organizations through their hardest, most designable moments.
After a stint as Interim Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Center for Social Sector Leadership at the Haas School of Business, I turned my focus to expanding Workswell Design, a consultancy focused on governance, leadership transitions, and senior advising for mission-driven organizations. That work led me to The Chair Project, an effort to give board chairs the support, preparation, and company the role deserves but almost never gets. And in a full-circle turn, I'm currently serving as Interim Academic Director at the Stanford d.school, the same place where a fellowship a decade ago sparked my third organization. I remain convinced that leadership is a relational practice, that play brings out the best in people, and that most organizations' hardest moments are also their most designable.
After college, I ran Harvard's Public Service Program for a year, taught swimming in remote communities along the Kuskokwim River in Alaska, and, after moving to the Bay Area, even worked briefly as a socially responsible stock broker. At age 23, not knowing any better, I launched the Museum of Children's Art, building interactive spaces where children and their families can create, share and connect through art.
At 31, while pregnant with my oldest child, I started Playworks after an encounter with a principal who was frustrated by her recent experience disciplining three boys who'd gotten in trouble at recess. She was concerned that because of recess, these boys were coming to see themselves as bad kids. I realized that had I not gotten a chance to run around at school every day, I would have had a really hard time succeeding. And I could see how through just a few small tweaks in how school recess was structured, we could deliver an outsized impact on the experience these kids had at school. In 2015-16, I got to spend a year as a fellow at the Stanford d.school, and as a result co-founded Substantial, a nonprofit that helps improve the substitute teaching experience for everyone.
Then in March 2020 the pandemic closed schools, and with them, recess. Playworks had to reinvent itself overnight while cutting deep: furloughs, layoffs, and a scramble for PPP funding. It was the hardest stretch of my professional life, and it taught me things about leadership through crisis that no growth year ever could. It also clarified something I'd been circling for a while: that my best contribution was no longer running one organization, but helping many organizations through their hardest, most designable moments.
After a stint as Interim Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Center for Social Sector Leadership at the Haas School of Business, I turned my focus to expanding Workswell Design, a consultancy focused on governance, leadership transitions, and senior advising for mission-driven organizations. That work led me to The Chair Project, an effort to give board chairs the support, preparation, and company the role deserves but almost never gets. And in a full-circle turn, I'm currently serving as Interim Academic Director at the Stanford d.school, the same place where a fellowship a decade ago sparked my third organization. I remain convinced that leadership is a relational practice, that play brings out the best in people, and that most organizations' hardest moments are also their most designable.
