jenw@youthtruthsurvey.org
(415) 723-4675
Jen Vorse Wilka - Executive Director
Jen Wilka leads YouthTruth, a rapidly growing national nonprofit that harnesses student perceptions to help K12 educators accelerate improvements in their schools and classrooms.
Jen is passionate about making education systems more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the students they serve. A native Vermonter, Jen’s belief in the transformative power of relationships traces back to her upbringing in a tightly-knit community on a 2-mile long dirt road. These days, Jen can be found listening to educators, translating their needs into survey products and statistics into English, and strategizing with schools and districts about how to get the most out of student feedback.
Before joining YouthTruth, Jen consulted to a 25,000 student school system in Ecuador, developed programs and grantmaking strategies at the Boston Foundation, and worked on the Circle of Promise initiative in the Boston Mayor’s Office. She holds a BA in English from Williams College and an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School, where she wrote an award winning thesis on rethinking zero tolerance school discipline policies. When not devising innovative uses for student perception data, Jen can be found rediscovering the world through the eyes of her energetic young children and enjoying the Bay Area’s great outdoors.