Jessica Rothkuo, MS

Senior Vice President, Strategy, Development and Communications

Jessica (Jessie) Rothkuo is a child welfare strategist dedicated to public sector systems improvement. Prior to joining the Little Flower team, she served as a senior policy analyst at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, where she delivered strategy and operations consultation to federal, state, and local child welfare agencies to build their capacity for successful system transformation. Rothkuo is known for a collaborative co-design approach that builds trust, strengthens systems, and enhances organizations’ ability to serve communities. Her expertise includes strategic planning, service design, business process improvement, systems thinking, cross-system collaboration, and evidence-based model implementation.

Rothkuo formerly served as the Senior Program Manager at the Redlich Horwitz Foundation, where she led the Foundation’s support of the Family First Prevention Services Act implementation. In that role, she oversaw a team delivering capacity building and technical assistance to 18 local jurisdictions in New York State. Rothkuo previously worked as a Senior Consultant with Deloitte. She assisted state agencies in developing programmatic strategy and operations improvements to drive better outcomes for staff and the children, youth, and families they serve. Her work included agency strategic planning, business process redesign, and deployment of enterprise software for case management. Rothkuo also served as the Executive Director of Strategy, Innovation and Planning at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, where she supervised a team responsible for guiding implementation of strategic initiatives. While there, she managed the system-level implementation of Strong Families NYC—New York’s Title IV-E waiver and the agency’s largest foster care initiative.

Rothkuo has 16 years of system-change experience and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Ethiopia 2010-2012). She earned a Master of Science in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from The New School and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kent State University.