Announcing JVF Partnership with KS WELI

The Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute (KS WELI) is pleased to announce our partnership with the Jessica Vollman Foundation (JVF). Named after Jessica Vollman, who passed away in 2020, her family started the JVF to honor her legacy.

As a UT alumna and passionate leader for women in business, Jessica was on a personal mission to empower entrepreneurs through globalization by making education more accessible.

KS WELI GRANT

As a proud UT Alum, Jessica discovered KS WELI when it first launched in Fall 2020. Aligned with KS WELI’s mission to “empower women to lead”, Jessica’s family believes she would have been involved with championing the next generation of courageous and creative leaders today. Honoring the legacy of Jessica, JVF has partnered with KS WELI to offer grants and sponsorship opportunities to leaders that are a part of KS WELI’s FoundHER Program.

We are thrilled to announce that the first JVF FoundHER Grant has been awarded to Emily Silver, founder of fruitleathernyc.

fruitleathernyc

Emily Silver is on a mission to disrupt the leather industry. She created fruitleathernyc which offers vegan leather bracelets made from a material called AppleSkin. The bracelets are durable and high-quality, with an extremely low impact on the environment. fruitleathernyc bracelets are vibrant, colorful, and loud.

Emily is a strong believer that it is our responsibility, as consumers, to purchase in more ethical and sustainable ways.

Receiving this grant from JVF will allow Emily to prototype new products, add essential team members, develop eco-friendly bracelet hardware to make her bracelets 100% eco-friendly, and launch a pop-up shop.

About Jessica

As a passionate leader for women in business, Jessica was on a personal mission to empower entrepreneurs through globalization and by making education more accessible. She spent most of her career on cross-cultural relationship-building with over a decade of experience working with government agencies, startups, and small businesses as they scale internationally.

Most recently, Jessica served as CEO of Fluent City, a language company specializing in AI natural language processing technology. Their aim was for students to learn new skills and, by doing so, expand their horizons and foster communications across cultures and communities.

She additionally founded The Vollman Group in 2016 to help startups scale company operations internationally through strategy, marketing, and consistent customer experience.

One of four sisters, Jessica was critically engaged in modern feminist theory, believing parity was possible by addressing systemic causes of inequality. Her foundation will continue her quest by supporting organizations aligned with her mission. KS WELI is honored to be one of those organizations.