About Jeanine
Starting with WHY
Starting with why is essential for leaders to have the ability to inspire those around them. I constantly reflect about why systems like education are the way they are, why does the opportunity gap continue to widen, and why do I believe I have a a spiritual assignment to lift education as a part of a bigger movement to dismantle inequity in all systems. I invite you to check out my video to understand my why. Learn more about the personal side of Jeanine and WHY educational equity driven by persons with lived experience is so important.
I share a similar background to many of my students and that is important because I understand their needs.
Jeanine Mowbray, a native of Wilmington,Delaware, is a passionate voice of change focusing her efforts on improving educational equity. Jeanine’s desire for educational equity comes from her lived experiences and challenges that she’s encountered throughout her personal and professional life. Some of Jeanine’s earliest works for advocacy began in high school where she challenged and worked with school administration to offer courses that would put students on a college career path, similar to her peers in a neighboring district. Jeanine graduated as valedictorian of her class and was one of 50 students across the nation to receive the prestigious $20,000 National Coca-Cola Scholarship.
Jeanine would continue on this fight for equity as she received her undergraduate degree from the Jepson School of Leadership from the University of Richmond and began service work with Teach for America to help underserved students in Miami-Dade County. At the completion of her service, she along with her colleagues, turned their school rating from an “F” to a “C” (based on Florida Department of Education rating scale).
Since her return to Virginia, Jeanine has worked in programs that service middle school students through afterschool programming in the Richmond area with Higher Achievement and NextUp in RVA. Through her work, she helped to navigate parents and students through the often cumbersome specialty and private high school admissions process.
In her current role as Director of Community Impact at United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg, Jeanine creates programs centered around community need and research. Most recently, Kindergarten Countdown Camp (KCC) was launched in the summer of 2019 in partnership with local school districts. KCC is now expanding to three districts in the Richmond region and addresses the need of kindergarten readiness for children and families, who have little to no preschool experience, so they may begin school prepared and ready to learn.
Jeanine graduates from the University of Richmond in May 2020 with a Masters in Educational Leadership and Policy. She has proudly adopted the moniker of "The Education Yoda" as she speaks unapologetic truth to educational inequity.