Jessica Foster

Jessica Foster

Jessica Foster

Chief Strategy Officer

Jessica Foster is chief strategy officer for Youth Villages. In her role, Foster oversees several areas with more than 80 staff members and is often focused on launching new initiatives. She established Strategic Partnerships in 2016 to train public and private agencies in LifeSet and Intercept, now supporting more than 20 agencies across 10 states and Washington, D.C. The Research, Evaluation & Data Science teams conduct rigorous evaluations and gather data to measure key performance indicators and participant outcomes. The Business Planning and Policy team secures contracts and advances state policy goals, while the Federal Policy team crafts and advocates for both legislative and administrative policy changes to best meet the needs of the communities we serve. The Strategy team develops state and national strategic plans for the organization. Most recent to Youth Villages, the New Allies and Memphis Allies initiatives are focused on child welfare system reform and reducing gun violence in Memphis, Tennessee.

Foster joined Youth Villages in 2011 and served in several strategy, business development, policy and partnerships roles before becoming chief strategy officer in 2019. Prior to Youth Villages, Foster was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and formerly at the Monitor Group. She also served as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter as a key advisor on foster care, adoption, welfare, economic development, public housing and nonprofit issues. Foster holds an MBA in marketing from The Wharton School and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University.

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