Jill Henwood
Jill Shenkel Henwood is a passionate educator and non-profit leader, and the former Executive Director of the Nathan Yip Foundation. She is currently the Executive Director of the Yampa Valley Partnership for Students, Stewardship and Sustainability in northwest Colorado. Her personal mission since student teaching in inner-city Philadelphia has been to help empower young people with the skills and abilities needed to change their world. Jill is a western Colorado native, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Human Biology, with a focus on cross-cultural education, from Stanford University, and her Master’s Degree in Education from University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching career began on the Zuni and Navajo reservations in New Mexico before moving back to Western Colorado, eventually landing with her family in Olathe, Colorado.
While in Western Colorado, Jill established and grew Girls on the Run of Western Colorado. The organization began with 40 girls and 12 coaches at two sites, and under leadership it grew to serve more than 2500 girls annually (coached by 600+ volunteer coaches) at 120 sites (23 counties) throughout Western Colorado, eastern Utah and northwest New Mexico. Jill simultaneously maintained her connections to K-12 education as an ESL teacher and cross country/track coach in Olathe. After moving to the Denver metro area, she returned to the classroom as a STEAM teacher in Englewood, but remained committed to educational equity and opportunity for all students, especially those in rural Colorado.
Her passion for rural Colorado education while living in Littleton brought her to the Nathan Yip Foundation, an organization committed to supporting rural Colorado schools through grants. After three years with the Nathan Yip Foundation, the YVPS3 opportunity arose in northwest Colorado and was a chance for her to actually live with her husband in Yampa, CO after many years living and working in different areas and return to the western slope. She is excited to serve on the NYF board to further the work of closing the educational opportunity gap between rural and urban schools in Colorado.
Jill has three daughters who experienced both the opportunities and the limitations of rural education in Olathe, Colorado, and a husband who is a rural Colorado superintendent. She is a lifelong runner who finds inspiration and ideas on trail runs with her dog, enjoys time running in the pool or on trails with her running with her friends. Most of all, she enjoys visiting her daughters – wherever their lives take them – currently Pennsylvania, Florida and South Carolina.
