Executive Leadership

Seven years after she served as Tri-State Region Executive Director for Jumpstart, Sharon Reilly returned to the organization in December of 2020 as chief development and marketing officer. In this capacity, Sharon ensures the people, partnerships, and systems across Jumpstart’s network are aligned to meet the organization’s fundraising goals, advance Jumpstart’s overall brand, and move the mission forward. An entrepreneurial and mission-driven leader, Sharon invested most of her professional career in Boston raising money and elevating the brand of organizations that were at a transformational moment. Her passion for Jumpstart’s mission is deeply rooted in both her personal lived experience and her belief in education as a powerful path to achieve equity. Before Jumpstart, Sharon served as the vice president of development at The Greater Boston Food Bank, where she led the most successful fundraising effort in the history of the organization. Prior to the Food Bank, Sharon held leadership roles at Cradles to Crayons and Women’s Lunch Place, leading successful fundraising campaigns at both organizations. Photo credit: Susan Symonds

Jennifer Templeman, President & Chief Operating Officer, joined Jumpstart in 2010 and brought 20 years of financial management experience to the organization to oversee finance, compliance, risk management, systems, technology, and talent management. In this role, she focuses on building strong policies and procedures with an emphasis on efficiency, support, and quality. Prior to Jumpstart, Jennifer worked at Girls Incorporated of Lynn, managing their finance department as well as an $11 million capital campaign and construction project to provide a new building for their growing programs. She grew up in North Carolina and received her degree in accounting from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, before deciding to work in the non-profit field. Her entree into financial management came at a domestic violence shelter on the Ohio/West Virginia border, followed by work at a child abuse prevention agency in southern Georgia. Jennifer spends time working with young accountants to provide them a glimpse of the joy to be found working in the non-profit field, knowing their skills are being used to better the lives of others. She regularly reminds those who work with her that they joined the organization because they all believe in the same mission. Every day that her team members manage their duties well, they go home not only with the satisfaction of a job well done, but they also have the honor of knowing they made life better for a child. Jennifer makes her home in Swampscott, Massachusetts, with her husband and three sons.

Naila Bolus is the Chief Executive Officer of Jumpstart, a national early education organization that advances equitable learning outcomes for young children in underserved communities by recruiting and supporting caring adults to  deliver high-quality programming to children and drive systems change through teaching, advocacy, and leadership. 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. At Ploughshares Fund, she transformed the organization from a small funder to a national, influential policy player. During her tenure, Naila led a successful $25 million endowment campaign and tripled the foundation’s budget and staff. Prior to Ploughshares Fund, she served as co-director of 20/20 Vision, a grassroots organization that sought to promote democracy through helping members communicate with national decision makers. She also 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 is delighted to be living in her home state of Massachusetts with her husband and three daughters after stints in Washington, DC; San Francisco; and Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Latinos for Education (LFE), published a four-part video series highlighting the value of Latino perspectives in education during 2018's Hispanic Heritage Month. As one of LFE’s first partners, Jumpstart was asked to record a video of CEO Naila Bolus sharing why Latino leadership at the board level matters to children and families. Click here for the full interview and video.