Jamai is Founder and CEO Emeritus of Innovate+Educate, a non-profit she started in 2008 with a vision for an industry-led board focused on education and workforce strategies to address the significant gaps between supply/demand in both education and workforce. The organization made a large impact in skills based hiring and training over the 12 years of implementation. Innovate+Educate is now focused on providing training funds to young adults seeking career and education advancement.
Jamai enjoyed a 15-year career in the investment field, managing over $125 Million in assets at the height of her career. She retired in 2001 to pursue her passion for education and the underserved youth, teaching middle school in Little Rock, AR and Durham, NC from 2001 to 2006. In 2006, she joined the North Carolina Technology Association, overseeing a congressional project in Robeson County, NC. She was Director of the NCTA Education Foundation from 2006-2008, before moving back to her hometown of Santa Fe, NM.
Jamai serves as an advisor on multiple national boards including the Urban Research Park, Upskill Enterprises, Innovate+Educate and Social Tech. She also is very involved in her work in her home in New Mexico, sitting on multiple committees and advisory boards. She is passionate about NDI-NM, where both of her daughters (Jessica and Wallis Ann) participated in classes, SWAT and other activities over the past decade.
Jamai has a BA and MBA from the University of Arkansas with a specialty in Finance in both degrees. She and her husband, Dave, have seven children ages 16-31, all on their own education to employment journey. When not focusing on her work, she is found in the garden, doing yoga, or reading.