Professional Biography
Jenny Zapf, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow and the Founding Director of the world’s first M.S.Ed. and M.S.Ed.-MBA in Education Entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Education and the Wharton School of Business. Dr. Zapf also is the Co-Founder and Faculty Director of Penn GSE’s virtual certificate program in Global Education Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Dr. Zapf is a global leader in education innovation. She has trained thousands of education, business, and industry professionals to build, test, manage, and scale new models – including schools, universities, programs, services, and products. Over the past decade she has advised business and institutional leaders on entrepreneurial projects in 30+ countries. Dr. Zapf routinely speaks at international venues such as Reimagine Education, Milken-Penn Education Business Plan Competition, Israel Education Summit, European EdTech Network, India EdTech Summit Series, and the ASU-GSV Innovation Summit.
For three decades, Jenny Zapf has launched education and social ventures in higher education institutions, schools, non-profits, research institutes, and venture labs. Through a range of roles in academic leadership, non-profit management, applied research, and policy, Dr. Zapf has worked to drive equity through design, building learning environments and pathways to transform the global education landscape and marketplace.
Dr. Zapf teaches micro-courses and workshops on Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education, Education Innovation Ecosystems, Education Ventures, and Entrepreneurial Mindsets in Education. Her signature course, Evaluation for Education Innovation, uses lean startup, design thinking, and developmental evaluation to test solutions in education. Dr. Zapf’s research looks at how we cultivate, measure, and scale entrepreneurial thinking and innovation across the education ecosystem.
Dr. Zapf’s background is in participatory, developmental, and impact evaluation; qualitative and lean methods; and adaptive and user-experience design. Her research interests include academic innovation, social and education entrepreneurship, impact measurement and research.
