Her Story
About Jackeline
Jackeline Peña is an education professional and public policy advocate serving as Manager of Educator Support and Impact at Empower Ed DC, where she focuses on strengthening educator support systems, school culture, and educational equity. Her career brings together experience in human resources, early childhood education, and education policy, allowing her to approach school improvement from both an operational and educator-centered perspective. Before transitioning into education, she studied accounting before changing her academic focus to business management and beginning a career in human resources.
Peña's professional background includes HR roles with organizations such as the Ford Foundation and NYU Langone Medical Center, where she gained experience in talent acquisition, benefits and compensation, onboarding, labor relations, and arbitration. After relocating to Maryland, she began working as a substitute teacher with DC Public Schools, eventually earning her teaching certification and becoming a kindergarten and Pre-K educator. Her classroom experience deepened her interest in systemic educational issues and led her to participate in public policy research and advocacy. As a teaching fellow, she researched policy issues, provided recommendations for advocacy strategies, testified at DC Council hearings, and co-facilitated educational workshops.
In her current leadership role, Peña works directly with schools and educators through consultations, professional workshops, wellness initiatives, grant management, and relationship-building with school leaders and community organizations. She has experience managing grant proposals connected to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and collaborating with advocacy organizations on education policy and equity initiatives. She is also involved with the National Association for the Education of Young Children and has participated in policy and advocacy forums focused on early childhood education. Her professional philosophy emphasizes educator well-being, stronger school communities, educational equity, and the importance of balancing career responsibilities with family and faith.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jackeline
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the wisdom of God at work in my life. As a young person, making decisions that will affect your future can be difficult to navigate alone. Amidst so many people's counsel and perspectives, how can one really know which is the path that they are destined to take? I attribute every success to the answers I have received through prayer and the study of the Bible.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I have ever received was "When you have finished with all you have been given to do, always ask for more work." I've always been the youngest among my colleagues in professional environments and a mentor of mine would always reassure me that the best stance to take as a young professional is to maintain a teachable spirit and an eagerness to "do" in the effort to push forth a vision.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering this industry is to be confident that this is the career path they truly want and to be fully committed to pursuing it. Success requires dedication, perseverance, and a genuine passion for the work, so it is important to enter the field with a clear sense of purpose and commitment.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in education today is the increasing focus on business-driven priorities, which can sometimes overshadow the needs of students and educators. At the same time, I see a significant opportunity to advocate for more flexible and innovative teaching approaches that can adapt to the evolving needs of learners and the changing educational landscape.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that are most important to me are faith and family - they serve as a guide to both my personal life and my work in education. People are struggling to balance the many hats they wear so they create boundaries that eventually comparmentalize their lives into separate arenas that isolate them. I value a wholistic approach to managing responsibilities in living life as one versus many. Transparency and authenticity are another set of the values that I have found to be important in navigating work and personal life. There is something that each individual has to offer the world that only they can do the way they do it and it's important to discover what that thing is.
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