Jesse Ilhardt

Executive Director & Co-Founder
Jesse@VOCEL.org

"Children embody so much of what’s good in our world — interestingly, the qualities that we so often need as adults — like curiosity, creativity, empathy, joy, love. It’s our greatest responsibility as their parents, caregivers and educators to nurture these gifts."

With more than 15 years in early childhood education, Jesse co-founded VOCEL in 2013 and now leads VOCEL’s vision, strategy and team as our Executive Director. A passionate champion of rigorous playful learning and perennial innovator, Jesse has channeled her bold, empathetic and entrepreneurial leadership while navigating challenges and opportunities, and nurturing a high-performing, compassionate team culture. Leveraging her degrees in journalism and early childhood development, Jesse loves talking with individuals and speaking to diverse audiences about excellence in early learning and distilling complex brain science into digestible concepts we all can use. 

Jesse’s enterprising nature carries over to her personal life, where you can find her curating everyday adventures with her husband and two young sons.