Jill Iscol

Educator and activist, Jill Iscol, Ed.D, is President of the IF Hummingbird Foundation, a family foundation established in 1989 to support domestic and international efforts to strengthen democracy and reduce the social, economic, and educational inequalities that threaten it. For the past two decades Jill has developed an expertise in identifying visionary leaders and programs at early stages of their development. She fosters their advancement by providing seed capital and guidance enabling them to become stable, sustainable and successful organizations, impacting lives around the globe. In the past these organizations have included Prep for Prep, Stand for Children, Facing History and Ourselves and Vital Voices Global Partnership. They currently include Acumen Fund, where she serves as a Founding Advisory Board Member, City Year New York of which she was a Founding Co-Chair, and the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development at Cornell University.

Jill has been actively involved in the Democratic Party and served as Chairperson of the Annual Family Re-Union Conference, moderated by then-Vice President Gore and Mrs. Gore. She also served as Co-Chair for Hillary Rodham Clinton for Senate’s New York Finance Committee and as National Vice-Chair of Hillary Rodham Clinton for President’s 2008 Finance Committee.

Most recently, Jill serves as a Trustee of Horizons National, on the Advisory Board of the Center for New American Security in Washington, as a member of the New York State Commission on National and Community Service and in 2011 was appointed to the US-Afghan Women’s Council.

After 25 years of finding and supporting inspiring social activists, her children, Zach and Kiva, encouraged her to write Hearts on Fire. She hopes that you too will be inspired and get involved. Jill is married to Ken Iscol and is a born and bred New Yorker. Hearts on Fire is her first book.