Jessica Soja

I do my best work in rooms where there are a lot of ideas, strong opinions, and no clear path forward yet. I serve as Senior Director of People Initiatives (Chief of Staff to the Head of People) at The Princeton Review, where I partner with executive leaders to strengthen organizational effectiveness across a national education technology company. Throughout my career, I've helped executive teams make better decisions by creating the governance, decision-making frameworks, and operating rhythms that turn strategy into execution. I listen, ask the questions that move things forward, and then build something people can actually use—a roadmap, a decision framework, a planning cadence, or a way of working that creates clarity and momentum. WHAT I DO: I partner with executive teams during moments of growth, complexity, and change. My work spans executive decision support, organizational design, workforce strategy, enterprise transformation, and cross-functional execution. That includes leading enterprise initiatives, designing talent and performance strategies, establishing governance, managing confidential executive priorities, and building annual and strategic planning processes that keep complex work moving. I'm often brought into high-trust situations—from redesigns and workforce planning to reductions in force, M&A diligence, and succession planning, where thoughtful execution matters as much as the decision itself. Over the past decade, I've worked across education, workforce development, philanthropy, nonprofits, and edtech, but the common thread has remained the same: designing how organizations work so leaders make better decisions, teams execute with greater clarity, and organizations adapt as priorities evolve. HOW I WORK: A few principles guide almost everything I build: • Clarity over complexity—if people don't understand it, they won't use it. • Structure with purpose—governance should enable people, not slow them down. • Honest, direct communication—clear expectations and shared accountability. • Data as a tool for learning and better decision-making. I care deeply about creating the conditions where people can do their best work. When leaders have clarity, teams have trust, and organizations have the operating discipline to execute well, better outcomes tend to follow. WHAT I'M KNOWN FOR: Bringing calm to ambiguity. Asking the question everyone else is avoiding. Seeing patterns across teams and functions that others miss. Designing practical ways of working that leaders actually adopt because they make good decisions easier.