Naila Bolus is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Jumpstart, a national early education organization that provides language, literacy and social-emotional programming for preschool children from underserved communities and promotes quality early learning for all children. Naila joined Jumpstart in October 2011 with more than 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector. During her tenure, Jumpstart has significantly expanded its scale and impact: increasing the number of children served annually by 68%, revising its curriculum to improve academic and social-emotional outcomes for children, and developing new programming to increase the number of high-quality early educators and influence the adoption of policies that promote equitable early education opportunities. Naila has focused on diversifying Jumpstart’s funding base and increasing brand visibility and has worked in partnership with an expanded board of directors to strengthen Jumpstart’s national reputation as a thought leader in the early childhood field.
Before Jumpstart, Naila served as Executive Director of Ploughshares Fund, the largest grant-making foundation in the United States dedicated exclusively to security and peace funding. She has also served as co-director of 20/20 Vision, a grassroots organization that sought to promote democracy through helping members communicate with national decision makers, and helped found the Women Legislators’ Lobby and served as the organization’s political director, successfully recruiting one third of female state legislators to lobby for environmental protection, human services, and peace.
Naila graduated from Tufts University in 1987 with a degree in International Relations and now lives in her home state of Massachusetts with her husband and three daughters.