Jessica Johnson is the Founder and Executive Director of The Scholarship Academy, a nonprofit organization that partners with schools and youth-serving organizations to help low-income/first-generation families create 4- year college funding strategies. As a recipient of over $200,000 in scholarships, she has spent the last decade serving as a national scholarship expert for organizations such as the New York Department of Education, and the GEAR UP Georgia Program. She has been featured in Black Enterprise, the Black Issues in Higher Education Magazine, and the NAACP Crisis Magazine for her work empowering young people to pursue debt-free degrees. A Howard University graduate, Jessica authored one of the first civic-based scholarship curriculums, “The College Funding Toolkit,” a 4-step guide to navigating the private scholarship market. Since its founding, The Scholarship Academy has helped students claim nearly $50 million in private scholarships, and more than $.1.6 billion in grants and University aid, earning her several national fellowships/awards including Echoing Green, the Ashoka Changemaker Award, the Points of Light Foundation's Civic Accelerator and Ebony Magazine’s Educate Young Minds Award. Today, The Scholarship Academy focuses on helping partners build healthier financial aid cultures by leveraging counselor trainings and customized scholarship planning technology.