Jillian Delos Reyes

Jillian has led the charge of the New Orleans Campaign for Grade-Level Reading since 2017 and manages the campaign as an internal initiative of the United Way of Southeast Louisiana (UWSELA) as the Director of Youth and Education Initiatives. A Virginia native, she has dedicated the last fifteen years across different organizations spanning Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, to improving the outcomes of children and families through direct programming, policy advocacy, and community organizing. Recent highlights of her career to date include: establishing D.C.’s first residential housing program for women and their children in addictions recovery at Samaritan Inns, managing strategic and sustainability plans for organizations like National Birth Equity Collaborative, Louisiana Center of Children’s Rights, Funders for LGBTQ Issues among many others, led UWSELA’s United for Early Care and Education COVID-19 recovery program that saved over 80 child care centers across southeast Louisiana from permanently closing its door during the pandemic, and most recently advocated for a historic first-time investment of city funds towards the expansion of high-quality early education seats which laid the groundwork for a dedicated 20-year millage that passed in 2022. Jillian is a fellow of the Urban League’s Urban Leaders of Equity and Diversity program, Loyola University College of Law’s Nancy Marsiglia Institute for Justice, and the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Education Policy Fellowship. She currently serves on the board of Make Music NOLA, an organization committed to providing free access to music and music instruction to low-income children of color to support the future culture bearers of New Orleans. Jillian has had the honor of calling New Orleans her home for the past eight years and dances as a member of the NOLA Cherrybombs Mardi Gras dance krewe when she is not working behind the scenes to help create equitable policies and programs for New Orleans children and their families.