As a Senior Program Associate with WestEd, Jennifer Folsom provides professional learning services and technical assistance to education projects and grants, school districts, and state education agencies. A core tenet of her work is capacity-building among leaders and professional learning facilitators, and she prioritizes learning that transforms classrooms and systems toward more equitable learning environments for all students and adults.
Her deep expertise in conceptualizing learning pathways and education projects; in the facilitation of respectful, collaborative adult learning; and in providing high-quality learning in technology-enhanced environments has contributed to projects that have demonstrated statistically significant impacts at the teacher, leader, and student levels.
She currently leads the Digital Fluency project with the goal of bringing tech-enhanced and tech-transformed learning to students, teachers, and leaders. Folsom has also authored many of the Making Sense of SCIENCE (MSS) project professional learning products and services.
Folsom, along with Niki Sandoval and the Council for Indigenous Relations, Careers, Leadership, and Equity (CIRCLE), received a WestEd Strategic Investment grant to conduct professional learning for WestEd staff and evaluate participant needs to build foundational awareness about the kinds of partnerships and practices that are well-matched to working with Indigenous communities.
Folsom was served by an Indian Education Assistance Act program as a child, which has driven her to focus on supporting learners from ethnic minorities, learners with exceptionalities, and learners who are not native English speakers. She began her career in education in high school, conducting research in a pharmacology lab and teaching K–5 students at a neighborhood environmental education center. In her free time, you’re likely to find her backpacking deep into the Sierra Nevada.