Meet Jennifer
Founder and Principal Consultant Jennifer L. Husbands, PhD, is a former Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she led the Community of Practice for the Networks for School Improvement from 2018-2024.
Jennifer’s career in education leadership has been focused on the adult learning that needs to happen to catalyze change at the classroom level to improve outcomes for students.
She has convened networks of schools, consulted leaders at low-performing schools on improvement strategies, and trained staff starting new schools. She led the nation’s first charter school-based, state-approved teacher certification program and launched an innovative graduate school of education within a K-12 charter network.
Jennifer earned her PhD in Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University's Graduate School of Education and her BA with Highest Honors from the University of Virginia. She is committed to lifelong learning, whether from her colleagues, her child, or through reading and listening to music and podcasts.
Media & Publications
Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change
Jennifer was quoted in this practical guide to facilitating collaboration among diverse individuals and organizations.
"The key for funders is to let the network lead so that participants are free to create the future they want—not the future the funders want for them. (...) According to Jennifer Husbands, a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this requires that funders 'understand how to walk a tightrope between providing structure and encouraging organic connections to develop and flourish.'" (p. 204)
To get started, "find a partner you trust who can help manage the network and hold a mirror up to you if you are impeding the network's development," suggests Jennifer Husbands. (p. 206)
Instructional Leadership for Systemic Change: The Story of San Diego's Reform
Jennifer co-authored this case study, which asks how leaders can develop and implement strategies to improve build instructional leadership and then manage the process of change in today's complex school environments. The authors answer this question through the study of a systemic reform initiative that was launched in San Diego, California in the late 1990s.
Rethinking Field Experiences in Preservice Teacher Preparation
Jennifer co-authored a chapter in Etta R. Hollins’ book about the centrality of clinical experiences in preparing teachers to work with students from diverse cultural, economic, and experiential backgrounds.