Jamilah Prince-Stewart

Jamilah Prince-Stewart is the founding Chief Executive Officer of FaithActs for Education, Connecticut’s premier faith-based education advocacy organization. Under her leadership, FaithActs has built a coalition of more than 500 members, over 7,000 committed voters, across 100 churches in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, and surrounding communities, successfully advocating for educational equity and systemic change.

A New Haven native, Jamilah’s commitment to education equity stems from her family’s experience with educational transformation. As the daughter of a first-generation college graduate who overcame significant barriers to achieve academic success, she understands firsthand the transformative power of access to quality education in changing generational trajectories.

After graduating from Yale University, Jamilah began her career at the Hartford Youth Scholars Foundation, where she facilitated educational opportunities for Hartford students in independent schools nationwide. As Director of Community Engagement at ConnCAN, she developed and led a groundbreaking clergy organizing initiative that resulted in significant education reform victories, including the approval of four new charter schools serving underserved communities.

The success of this clergy organizing work led to the founding of FaithActs for Education in 2015, a strategic partnership born from a collaboration with Pastor William McCullough and six phenomenal founders.

Since founding FaithActs, Jamilah has secured millions in additional education funding for Connecticut’s most underserved students, including $160 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding and $10 million for priority school districts. Her advocacy has resulted in accelerated funding timelines and the creation of a legislative task force to diversify Connecticut’s educator workforce.

The FaithActs’ Organizing Institute, a six-month leadership development program, has graduated over 40 community leaders who now lead advocacy efforts in their local communities. This program exemplifies Jamilah’s approach to building sustainable grassroots power and developing leadership capacity for the community, by the community.

A strategic fundraiser and organizational leader, Jamilah has grown FaithActs from startup to a multi-million-dollar organization while maintaining its mission-driven focus and community accountability. She is known for her principled approach to funding relationships and her commitment to organizational integrity.

Jamilah, a daughter of Barbados and Nevis, is raising the fourth generation of New Haveners with her husband and two children in New Haven, while also nurturing her stepsons Kadé and Konnor in Barbados and Jamaica respectively. She continues to advocate for systemic change while raising the next generation of leaders across the diaspora.