Founder and president of Playworks. Jill has worked for more than 25 years in the nonprofit sector, during which she focused her entrepreneurial skills on conceiving of and growing two successful nonprofit organizations.
Jill launched Playworks in 1996 with two schools in Berkeley, California. During the 2011-12 school year, Playworks will be bringing play and physical activities to 350 low-income, urban elementary schools in 23 cities: Albuquerque, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Durham, Houston, Jackson, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Newark, New Orleans, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, St. Paul, and Washington, D.C.
Prior to Playworks, Jill founded the Museum of Children’s Art (mocha) in Oakland, California. She served as the executive director at mocha for nine years, ultimately expanding its programs to reach 20,000 young people each year.
Jill graduated from Harvard University where she studied medical sociology, played rugby, and became actively involved with Harvard’s service-learning community. Vialet served as the director of Harvard’s Public Service Program during the 1986-87 school year. In 1996 she was awarded Radcliffe’s Jane Rainie Opel Award for achievement by a young alumna. Jill was a Eureka Fellow from 2000 to 2001 and in 2004 she was selected as an Ashoka Fellow.
