Leadership Team

Kate spearheads Jumpstart’s policy advocacy activities. Kate and the policy and government affairs (PGR) team, work to advance Jumpstart’s advocacy agenda in early education, higher education, and national service. The PGR team leverages strategic relationship and movement building with policymakers, partner organizations, Jumpstart alumni and impacted constituencies to address the challenges we are facing in the early care and education sector and workforce.

Kate is a social worker and a relentless champion for social justice who has worked to build a more equitable world using policy advocacy to dismantle systemic oppression. For over a decade, Kate has utilized roles in government affairs combined with an inclusive leadership style, to promote movement building in community with children and families to improve health and wellbeing. Examples of this include Kate’s service in policy and government affairs roles at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, the National Association of Social Workers, Massachusetts Chapter, and Harbor Health Services.

In service to her community, Kate also serves as a licensed foster care provider and volunteers on several nonprofit board including the American Civil Liberties Union Massachusetts, and Project Bread, a statewide nonprofit working to solve and prevent hunger in Massachusetts.

As a curious lifelong learner and believer that education is a form of liberation, Kate serves as an adjunct professor at Boston University’s Graduate School of Social Work and is a doctoral student at the Sacred Heart University School of Social Work.

Kate strives to balance work, academics and community service by finding joy in soul care that includes exploring different health and wellness practices, traveling, vegan baking and cheering on the New England Patriots.

Ashley C. Williams, Ed.D. is the Vice President of Programs where she leads the organization’s workforce strategy to expand the pipeline of qualified, diverse talent pursuing careers in early education. Dr. Williams lends decades of experience to her role as her work over the years is situated in the nexus of early learning, family engagement, higher education, and policy with a specific focus on early educators. She has worked in several roles in early care and education, including serving as a Jumpstart Corps Member and team leader where she started her ECE journey. She continued on to become a preschool teacher, Head Start center director, and early childhood teacher educator at the undergraduate and master’s levels at SF State. She is the former Associate Director of EDvance and served as the Senior Quality and Workforce Analyst for the San Francisco Office of Early Care and Education. Prior to returning to Jumpstart as a part of the organization’s leadership team, Dr. Williams was the Director of California Policy and Educator Engagement Programs for the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Her professional work extends internationally as she co-led a study abroad service-learning program in ECE settings in South Africa and New Zealand. Dr. Williams is also a Policy Fellow at the National Black Child Development Institute. Overall, Dr. Williams’ daily work is rooted in contributing to early learning systems in ways that explicitly reveal, dissolve, and resolve systemic inequities that cause harm to children, families, and the educators that work with them- especially when they are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Dr. Williams earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership at SF State where she also earned her B.A. in Child and Adolescent Development and an M.A.Ed. with an emphasis on Early Childhood Education.

Jamella deeply believes in Jumpstart’s vision that “every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed.” As Chief People Officer, she provides human capital leadership to align Jumpstart’s strategic priorities with the necessary people capabilities to deliver on the organization’s mission, business objectives, values, and people-centered culture so that Jumpstart can build a more equitable education system for young children. With Jumpstart Jamella returned to her roots in national service. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, where she also minored in business. After graduating from Cornell, she deferred pursuing her master's in education at Harvard to serve as a corps member and service leader at City Year of Columbus. From there, while earning her master’s at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she worked as an elementary school teacher at King Elementary School in Cambridge, MA; worked as a facilitator in the Harvard Summer Literacy Institute; and as a literacy teacher at the Dorchester Neighborhood Charter School. Upon graduating, at the behest of former President Clinton and President Nelson Mandela, she moved to South Africa to manage the Clinton Democracy Fellowship at City Year, helping to lead that organization’s first international expansion initiative. After several years in South Africa, Jamella returned to the United States to work as a vice president of communications and professional development for the Ohio Charter School Association and vice president of development and special initiatives at Concept Schools in Chicago. In 2010, Jamella earned a Juris Doctor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, a program for which she was the Katherine C. Jones Scholarship recipient and was also awarded the Marsha Schermer Scholarship by the Columbus Bar Foundation. While in law school, Jamella worked as a two-year summer associate at the law firm of Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP, and taught in the Ohio Law & Leadership Institute, a program developed to provide an opportunity for high school students from underserved communities to learn skills that may help them become lawyers and leaders in their communities. At graduation, Jamella was awarded the Harry S. and Georgina Lett Memorial Award for outstanding service to the Moritz College of Law. A recipient of numerous other awards, Jamella has also been awarded the Compaq Leadership Award, an award honoring alumni of City Year who have distinguished themselves through continued civic leadership and commitment to service. After law school, Jamella joined the Taft School faculty serving as chair of the Global Studies and Service Department and dean of Global and Diversity Education. In collaboration with Waterbury partners and colleagues, she created the Center for Global Leadership and Service, an "action tank" developed though the Edward E. Ford Foundation Educational Leadership Grant initiative and subsequent matching donations. Since 2018 she has served as Jumpstart’s VP of People and Culture. In August of 2021, Jamella was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as a member of the Board of Early Education and Care.

Jess joined the staff at Jumpstart in 2000, but her Jumpstart journey began prior to that. While attending Wheelock College, she saw a yellow flyer for Jumpstart on a bulletin board and immediately knew she wanted to be a part of this work. She joined Jumpstart as a college student volunteer and, eventually, a team leader serving at Head Start classrooms in Boston for three years. Jess has held many roles at Jumpstart. She also worked as field staff, directly recruiting, training, and coaching college students in Boston. She then moved into a regional program director role, where her focus was on supporting staff in the field. She also successfully grew Jumpstart’s impact in Boston through various partnerships and innovations. For the last 14 years, Jess has been a part of the national education and research team, landing in her current role as vice president in 2012. In this role, Jess is dedicated to using research, best practices, and field feedback to inform Jumpstart’s current and future programming. She loves working with others to conceptualize and develop new and innovative models. Jess lives in Woburn, Massachusetts with her husband and young son.

Karina Kidder, Vice President of Program Operations, joined Jumpstart in 2003 and has over 18 years of experience in the non-profit sector leading and motivating teams working toward creating social change. As Vice President of Program Operations, Karina is responsible for overseeing program implementation across the organization, strategic growth efforts, and managing the systems and infrastructure for future growth. She is also responsible for overseeing the national operations and business technology departments. Karina is deeply passionate about equal access to high quality education. Prior to Jumpstart, Karina worked for a Los Angeles based non-profit, Los Angeles Team Mentoring, running after-school programs for middle school students in the LA Unified School District. She has been with Jumpstart for over fifteen years and has held numerous positions over her tenure, ranging from working directly with members in the field as a site manager to Executive Director for Jumpstart Chicago to Vice President of Program Operations. Karina has been dedicated to supporting the implementation of Jumpstart programs across the country and has supported organizational growth activities, helping to expand current programs and bringing new partnerships to the Jumpstart network. Karina earned her B.A. from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a MBA from Ohio University. She lives in Chicago, Illinois with her husband and her faithful canine companion.