JFF, a national nonprofit that drives transformation in the American workforce and education systems, today introduced Libuse Binder as its new policy innovation fellow. The former executive director of Stand for Children Washington, Libuse (Lee-ba-shay) will support JFF’s efforts to promote transformative state policy strategies that establish a vision for resilient, diversified, and inclusive regional economies that offer everyone opportunities to succeed. Her fellowship at JFF is supported by a grant from IBM.

Libuse has been a catalyst for change for nearly 20 years. Working to improve student outcomes since 2002, she has brought her passion and expertise to activities ranging from civic engagement to education policy research. As the executive director at Stand for Children Washington, she positioned the organization as a leading voice in Washington State education policy and helped it become one of the state’s most influential issue advocacy organizations. In 2018, she was named to the fourth cohort of the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Leadership Institute, a yearlong program focused on leading change in complex political climates.

Building on the proposals JFF put forth in its recently released State Policy Road Map for an Equitable Economic Recovery, Libuse will design strategic engagements to sustain and scale the organization’s support of bold state policy stances that drive innovation in and transformation of education and workforce systems. She will be embedded within JFF’s national policy team through the summer of 2021 to develop strategies to catalyze the impact of JFF’s state policy engagement for years to come.

“I’m thrilled to have Libuse join JFF to rapidly accelerate our state policy engagement,” said Lexi Barrett, associate vice president of policy at JFF. “As states look toward policy change to recover from the impact of the pandemic, JFF has an important role to play in supporting state work to drive an equitable economic recovery for all.”

Libuse joins JFF Vice President Michael Collins as the latest Innovation Fellow@JFF. With generous support from IBM, the Innovation Fellows program gives experts from inside and outside of JFF an opportunity to apply their talents, expertise, and ideas in ways that help JFF strike out in new directions to build more equitable workforce and learning systems.