Jennifer Vranek Founding Partner
Jenn founded Education First in 2006 to partner with policymakers, education advocates, and foundation and business leaders to analyze education improvement options and strategy, move public policy agendas forward, and generate public and educator support for reform.
Jenn’s work focuses on policy, strategic planning and communication projects in the areas of college and career readiness, teacher and leader effectiveness, STEM education and college completion. Her clients include Achieve, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Data Quality Campaign, Hope Street Group, Louisiana Department of Education, Lumina Foundation, National State Teachers of the Year, Ohio State Board of Education, Seattle Public Schools and Teach Plus. She led or was a team member on the development of winning Race to the Top applications for Hawai'i, Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee. Jenn currently serves as co-content leader for teacher and leader effectiveness for the Race to the Top Reform Support Network, leading the strategy and delivery of technical assistance on the implementation of states’ plans to implement common standards, assessments and teacher/principal effectiveness systems.
Before starting Education First, Jenn was an advocacy grantmaker for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she launched major grant initiatives of more than $15 million in the Midwest and southeast. Previously, Jenn served as executive director of Partnership for Learning, a CEO-backed education-advocacy organization in Washington; as co-founder of the Washington, D.C. office and director of benchmarking and state services for Achieve Inc., where she designed and launched the American Diploma Project; and as a researcher at the American Federation of Teachers.
In 2010, Jenn was honored by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of the "40 Under 40." A 2004 graduate of Leadership Tomorrow of Puget Sound, she is a member of the advisory board and PAC board for Stand for Children of Washington. Previously, she served on the board of directors of the New School Foundation, which strengthens early learning through full-day preschool and aligned preschool through third grade schooling, and as vice chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington.
Jenn holds a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University and an AB in history and public policy from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She resides in Seattle, Washington.