Jewel Knolton is a Detroit area education and business leader, currently serving as the Managing Director for Per Scholas Detroit. Throughout her vast tenure in the workforce development area, Jewel has bolstered Metro Detroit’s workforce with thousands of the region’s most deserving and previously untapped talents. Prior to joining Per Scholas, Jewel served as the inaugural Year Up Detroit Director of Program and was a key leader of Focus: HOPE’s half-century strategic plan implementation. She has overseen dramatic increase in student enrollments and job placement as well as the securing of over $10 million in new funding. Her resourcefulness and fiscal sensitivity have significantly improved the organizations she serves.
Jewel is a devoted contributor to her family, community, work, and culture. She is genuinely approachable and consistently exemplifies care for people. As a director, she is thorough and innovative, accepting new and changing tasks with enthusiasm, professionalism, and confidence. She motivates others, drawing out the best in them to meet and exceed expectations. Her teams praise her leadership and has shared that her leadership style is defined by one object; an umbrella as she operates in the vein of ultimate coverage and protection for the division, its people, the work of the organization and the unique people that we serve.
Jewel has been recognized for her leadership skills, fund development outcomes, project management abilities, and volunteerism within the roles that she has occupied in the non-profit arena for the last twenty-four years. She has used her financial background to voluntarily support several philanthropic and religious organizations. Furthermore, Jewel has occupied volunteer leadership roles within various school environments within the Southeastern Michigan region.
Most recently, the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation accepted Jewel into the 19th cohort of their Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) Academy which exists to establish demand-driven strategies to create real career pathways for students and workers with talent pipelines aligned to dynamic business needs. In 2020, The Michigan Chronicle, a historical African American media outlet, announced Jewel as one of their 40 under 40 Honorees. This distinction adds Jewel to a group comprised of her area’s most influential young professionals and community leaders. Knolton is also a part of the Detroit Workforce System Leadership Development Academy Class of 2020/Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Fellow. Additionally, she sits on the Board of Directors for the Lynette O. Blocker Foundation whose mission is to extend a helping hand to those venturing into the realm of Skilled Trades, and Encourage Me I’m Young (EMIY), Inc., an organization focused on mentorship and suicide eradication.
Jewel is currently pursuing her PhD at Hampton University. She holds an MA in Education from Central Michigan University, a BS in Business Administration from Wayne State University, an executive education certificate from Yale’s School of Management. She is also a certified Global Career Development Facilitator.