Jane Mitchell

As an undergraduate at Stanford, Jane had planned to work overseas—until she spent time tutoring in San Francisco jails, where she saw firsthand the wasted human life systemically trapped in a cycle of poverty and imprisonment. When she calculated how long it would have taken one of her students to get a GED at the rate of tutoring then allowed, she was shocked to discover the answer: nineteen years.

Reflecting on her experience teaching in prison, Jane observed, “It was clear to me that existing correctional education programs were woefully insufficient to compensate for a lifetime of limited opportunity.” As she continued working in correctional facilities and coordinating prison education programs across the country (teaching in California, Utah, and NYC’s Rikers Island), Jane was constantly brainstorming: how could the system be improved? One day, she had an epiphany: what if someone did for the prison system what charter schools did for education? After mulling on the idea and exploring it for a semester with her students at Rikers, Jane focused her graduate studies at Columbia on researching and shaping the idea into a working alternate model.

Jane meanwhile worked on the strategy team for NYC’s Department of Education District 79 (Alternative Schools and Programs). She also helped found the ROADS Charter High Schools in New York City, a network of schools serving over-age, under-credited youth (she currently serves on their Board of Directors), and practiced law in the corporate department of Kaye Scholer, LLP. She serendipitously met Jen through a mutual friend in 2012. Feeling that the time was finally right time to launch the venture, Jane teamed up with Jen to start Reset. The following year, she and Jen were named 2013 Open Society Black Male Achievement Fellows. In 2015, Jane and Jen were named Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.

In addition to working at Reset, Jane loves spending time with people—especially her husband Matt, her six siblings, and the youth group at her church. She enjoys biking, sailing, writing music, and learning.