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Contest Judge Rachael Fortune
Rachael leads the Jacksonville Public Education Fund to help close the opportunity gap between historically underserved students and their peers in Duval County’s public schools. Having served in government, non- profit, district and school-based roles, Rachael draws upon significant professional experience at all levels of the education system. A Jacksonville native, Rachael returned to her hometown as JPEF’s Executive Vice President in 2017 before being appointed president in 2018.
Rachael previously served on the senior leadership
team at America’s Promise Alliance as Senior Director of the GradNation Campaign. She was a 2013 Presidential Management Fellow
and served as a Program Officer in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC, where she managed a portfolio of multi-million-dollar Race to the Top grants and supported state education agencies to advance education reform efforts during the Obama Administration.
Prior to this, she served as an Education Pioneers Fellow at the Oakland Unified School District to improve community school strategic planning across the district. Earlier, she led JPEF’s community mobilization efforts, launching the ONE-by-ONE campaign to mobilize stakeholders to develop a shared vision for local schools. Rachael began her career as a Duval County Public Schools teacher at S. P. Livingston Elementary School through Teach for America – Jacksonville’s charter corps.
Rachael holds a master’s degree in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Florida. At UNF, Rachael served as the second African American female Student Body President and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, among other leadership roles. Rachael currently serves on the Board of Directors
of Baptist Medical Center. She was recognized by Jacksonville Business Journal as one of the First Coast’s 40 under 40 in 2020. She is a member of Leadership Florida’s Education Class of 2018 and Leadership Jacksonville’s Class of 2022. She is the proud wife of Emmanuel Fortune, and mother to their children, Nicholas, Elle, and Riley.