The Girls Justice League Welcomes its First Executive Director!
* The original announcement was made on May 15, 2017
The Girls Justice League (GJL) is excited to announce that Dr. Charlotte Jacobs, who has been actively involved in the organization for the past 4 years, has been selected as GJL’s first Executive Director! Charlotte will be leading the growth and development of Girls Justice League into its 5th year and beyond as it moves towards its goal of becoming a fully girl-run organization.
The Girls Justice League is a girls’ rights non-profit organization dedicated to taking action for social, educational, and economic justice for girls, young women, and all those who identify as female in Philadelphia.
Charlotte has served in many critical roles in the organization from Co-Coordinator of the Saturday and Summer Institutes to most recently, Chair of the Board of Directors.
Charlotte played a pivotal role working with the girls to launch GJL’s first Turning Points Conference, a feminist and social justice conference planned by girls for girls. She also provided leadership to successfully launch Breaking the Silence Town Hall, a day-long event that brought together female identified young people, researchers, activists, policy makers to highlight gender-focused education and justice issues facing girls of color in Philadelphia. The event was organized in partnership with the African American Policy Forum, the Bread and Roses Community Fund, and several other local social justice-oriented organizations.
Charlotte recently earned her Ph.D. in education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests focus on issues of identity development and gender in education concerning adolescent girls of color, teacher education and diversity, and youth participatory action research. While at Penn, Charlotte has worked as a research assistant for the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, and was the chair of the Penn Summit on Black Girls and Women in Education event in May 2015, which featured keynote speaker, scholar, and activist Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. Prior to graduate school, Charlotte was a 7th grade Humanities teacher in Chicago.
Charlotte’s passion for working with female identified young people and commitment to social justice issues will continue to support and drive forward GJL’s mission and vision of creating a space where girls come together to change the world.