Biography

Stephen Yadzinski is the senior innovation officer for JFF. In this role, Steve works with JFF leaders and teams to identify new opportunities, establish new partnerships, and transform JFF programs and service lines to meet an evolving and dynamic education and workforce ecosystem, leveraging the fields of technology, innovation, and investment to further our mission.

Passionate about the role technology can play in creating business aligned education and workforce social impact, Steve also leads the JFFLabs Acceleration work and team, JFFLabs’ social impact technology accelerator. The JFFLabs accelerator is a unique model, combining insights and publishing, incubation, acceleration, and digital transformation capabilities to support entrepreneurs, grow startups, and bring to market proven solutions to help people connect to quality jobs, education, and training.

Previously, Steve founded the Innovate+Educate Employment Tech Division in response to the critical need to improve workforce readiness for high-demand jobs in key U.S. industries. Under Steve’s leadership, the division grew to include organizational psychologists, data scientists, user interface developers, and others to create leading-edge mobile technologies, assessments, and labor-market insights connecting Americans living at or near poverty with education, training, and quality jobs.

Earlier in his career, Steve founded and led his own branding, communications, and technology consultancy. The organization grew to serve a national clientele with marquee projects that included Emirates Airline North American advertising and photo books presented to President Obama in support of National Monument designations across the Southwest.

A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Steve lives with his wife and two children in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and enjoys backpacking and skiing in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near his home.