A proud lifelong Georgian, Jonathan “JT” Wu is the Founder and Executive Director of Preface – an award-winning, Gwinnett County-grown, and nationally operating early childhood literacy nonprofit initiative that recruits and trains service-oriented high school students to enhance early childhood literacy in their own local classrooms. Utilizing innovative high-impact and low-cost peer-mentorship models designed alongside expert educators, Preface supercharges the efforts of frontline teachers on the ground by facilitating highly customizable, and often multilingual, virtual reading sessions that have helped bring students from functional illiteracy to reading at and above grade level – even through the challenges of COVID-19. As a child of immigrants himself, Wu is passionate about bringing together public and private sector expertise to help children of all backgrounds gain access to the tools, resources, and mentorship necessary to achieve their American Dreams – both throughout Georgia and across America. He has previously held executive roles across the private sector, including at National Spine & Pain Centers, Prospira Paincare, and Citigroup’s Global Capital Markets division and has served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance, where he liaised on the efficacy of American developmental aid. Wu remains active in his community, serving on leadership at Brookhaven Presbyterian Church and acting as a Founding Principal of BCD Properties, an affordable housing initiative aiming to reduce rent-dependence and wealth inequality in the metro Atlanta area. Additionally, he serves on the board of the Alchemy Sky Foundation, a music-oriented support system for Georgia veterans, and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Gwinnett County Public Library, the Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, and the Special Needs School of Gwinnett. He has been honored by YNPN Atlanta as one of its 2020 30 Under 30 Nonprofit Leaders and serves on the Young Professionals Advisory Board for the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce. More recently, Wu has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Asian-Americans in Georgia by the Georgia Asian Times, honored by the Points of Light Foundation as a community changemaker, named a Young Leader by the Council of the United States and Italy, and chosen as a GeorgiaForward “Young Gamechanger” by the Georgia Municipal Association. An alumnus of both Gwinnett County Public Schools and the McCallie School, Wu graduated cum laude with a degree in Public Policy from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.