Junior Achievement of Georgia Directors Named 2026 Moxie Award Finalists

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia is proud to announce that two employees have been named finalists for the 2026 Moxie Awards. Jennifer Ho, Senior Director of Board Relations & Special Projects, has been selected as a finalist in the On the Rise category, while Elisa Molina, Director of the JA Discovery Center Experience in Gwinnett, has been named a finalist in two categories, the Moxie Award and the Pay It Forward Award.

The Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s annual Moxie Awards, presented by Northeast Georgia Heath System, celebrate women whose leadership is making a lasting difference in their organizations and communities.

As Senior Director of Board Relations & Special Projects, Jennifer Ho serves as a strategic connector between JA of Georgia's leadership, Board of Directors, and community partners. Since joining the organization in 2021, she has helped support a period of significant growth, including the expansion of JA Discovery Centers across Georgia, while strengthening relationships with more than 100 board members and volunteers who help advance JA's mission. A rising leader in the metro Atlanta nonprofit community, Jennifer recently graduated from the Gwinnett Young Professionals program and has been selected for the 2027 LEAD Atlanta class.

Elisa Molina is celebrating 13 years with Junior Achievement of Georgia, having joined the organization in 2013 to help launch its first JA Discovery Center. Today, she leads the day-to-day operations and program experience of the JA Discovery Center in Gwinnett, overseeing a team dedicated to providing immersive, hands-on learning experiences for 30,000 students and over 2,000 teachers and volunteers each year. She has also championed efforts to make JA programs more accessible for Spanish-speaking students by helping translate curriculum and educational materials, ensuring more young people can benefit from JA's programs.

"Jennifer and Elisa embody what it means to lead with purpose," said John Hancock, President and CEO of Junior Achievement of Georgia. "We couldn't be more proud to see them recognized among this year's Moxie Award finalists."

Together, Jennifer and Elisa have each played an instrumental role in expanding Junior Achievement's impact, helping thousands of students develop the financial literacy, career readiness, and entrepreneurial skills needed to succeed in today's economy. In metro Atlanta alone, JA of Georgia reaches more than 62,000 students annually through programs focused on financial literacy, work and career readiness, and entrepreneurship.

The 2026 Moxie Awards winners will be announced by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce at its annual awards celebration. The event will feature 2025 JA Greater Augusta Business Hall of Fame Laureate, Stephanie Stuckey, as their keynote speaker. To learn more about the Moxie Awards and this year's finalists, visit https://gwinnettchamber.org/moxie-awards/.

About Junior Achievement of Georgia

Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia is a business- integrated education partner with expertise in experiential learning that successfully develops key mindsets and skills for students to lead meaningful and successful lives. JA’s high-impact programs drive long-term outcomes in areas of financial literacy, career readiness, and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit, and are delivered by corporate and community volunteers. JA of Georgia offers multiple programs, with a focus on middle and high school students, including JA BizTown, JA Finance Park, 3DE by Junior Achievement, and the JA Dream Accelerator. JA of Georgia has locations in Metro Atlanta, Cumming, Dalton, Evans, Morrow, and Savannah. For more information, visit georgia.ja.org

Building real-world experiences for Georgia students

This article originally appeared in a feature in Blueprint Magazine.

It’s a typical morning in town. Offices, banks and stores bustle as people go to work and run errands. Whether it’s buying flooring, applying for a loan, or shipping a package, it’s all getting done inside a Junior Achievement Discovery Center—and the workers and shoppers are all middle schoolers.

Designed to immersive them in the experience of managing a business or a household, JA Discovery Centers are becoming integral components of middle school education, says Leela Woodfield, senior director of capital projects and construction for Junior Achievement of Georgia.

Woodfield has guided the construction of JA Discovery Centers from metropolitan Atlanta to Dalton and Savannah. In doing so, she’s discovered a way to impact local education.

“For someone who used to design parking lots and sewers, I’ve learned a lot about building construction,” Woodfield says. “I have the most fun job because I get to build these incredibly cool spaces.”

Making it real

JA programs start in sixth grade with JA BizTown. Students get 20 hours of in-class lessons on the world of work and running a company. Then, they apply what they learn during a one-day visit to a JA Discovery Center.

There, students are assigned jobs with one of the more than 100 sponsor companies that include Chick-fil-A, Georgia Power, UPS and Georgia United Credit Union. One enterprising student even contacted the CEO of Delta Air Lines to ask what he should expect as he assumed his role, Woodfield recalls.

The JA Finance Park program is for seventh or eighth grade students. Through the program, they are assigned real-life situations—marriages, families, incomes, student debt and credit scores, for example—and they must develop household budgets. During their visit to a JA Discovery Center, they play out their roles, managing their lives and finances.

The first JA Discovery Center, a 50,000-square-foot facility, was built in Atlanta in 2013. It serves students from Atlanta Public Schools as well as from Dekalb County and Fulton County schools.

Learning to build

A year later and at the time of her hiring in 2014, Woodfield didn’t expect to be involved in construction. In her previous job at Simpson Elementary School in Norcross (outside Atlanta), she had been the registrar, records manager and web manager, among other roles.

However, someone noticed her civil engineering and project management experience, and Woodfield quickly found herself guiding the construction of the JA Discovery Center at Gwinnett. The 45,000-square-foot facility was the first built on a school campus as part of the new Discovery High School in Lawrenceville.

After the project was completed in 2015, she began work on the Mike & Lynn Cottrell JA Discovery Center at North Georgia in Cumming. It opened in 2018 and serves students from schools in Gainesville and Calhoun City as well as Dawson, Forsyth, Hall and Lumpkin counties.

This year, the JA Discovery Center of Greater Dalton opened and serves 13,500 students in 13 school districts in northwest Georgia. While it also opened as a part of new school construction, the 15,000-square-foot facility is a separate building that was added to project plans, Woodfield says.

In February 2022, a JA Discovery Center will open on Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah, built into what had been the student activities center.

Looking ahead

JA Discovery Centers resemble interior sets used for movies and TV shows. Each storefront or office façade is unique. Local landmarks—such as Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, Lawrenceville’s historic courthouse and Lake Lanier in Cumming—are part of the design, as are the sponsors’ brands.

“We don’t want it to look like students are walking into a cookie cutter space. We want them to feel like they’ve stepped into their hometown,” she says.

The JA Discovery Centers also reflect changes brought on by technology. Students get tablets for their assignment work. Paper registers used to record transactions are gone and stores have debit card swipe technology. The displays at Georgia Power now show “smart” home technology including sensors to control lighting and heating.

Woodfield updates the spaces to reflect rebranding by the sponsoring companies. Last summer, she led 21 changes at three JA Discovery Centers, which included incorporating Kia Motors’ new look in the Atlanta center.

“I am the glue to make sure all the vendors and contractors are on schedule,” Woodfield says. “I manage the project from the owner’s perspective.”

Building for careers

A native of College Park, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., Woodfield says she wanted to become an architect but adds she lacked the artistic talent. However, she excelled in math, physics and the sciences, and earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering technology from Southern College of Technology (now Kennesaw State University) in 1993.

After graduation, Woodfield joined Pond & Co. in Norcross, Georgia, as a project manager and engineer, helping build wireless telecommunications networks. From 1993 to 2003, she was a consultant, project manager and office manager there and for S & R Associates but stepped back after her two children were born.

Gwinnett County Public Schools allowed her to have a flexible work schedule, but Woodfield says she missed construction and project management. So, while she hadn’t expected to become the owner’s rep for building JA Discovery Centers, it’s been a welcome turn.

“Our mission is to inspire the futures of our students, prepare them for tomorrow’s economy,” Woodfield says. “I have a foot in the engineering and construction, but I also get to support our youth and partner with so many great companies as we design and carry out the space.”

Introducing John Hancock, new President and CEO of JA of Georgia!

It’s been four months since I moved to Atlanta to lead Junior Achievement of Georgia. During that time, I’ve had nearly 300 meetings during which I had the pleasure to talk with many of the people involved with advancing our organization in significant ways. As such, one of my biggest takeaways so far is simple: it really is all about the people.

• The 175,000-plus students we will impact this school year.

• The thousands of partners, educators and volunteers that are instrumental in that impact.

• The JA staff and world-class Board of Directors that drive our strategy and operations, and

• The Atlanta business and civic community that seems so committed to enhancing the outlook and opportunities of our next generation.

It really is the combination of all these people that has energized me in my role as President and CEO. When I think about my goals for JA of Georgia, I begin with the foundation that has been established over the last ten years under the leadership of my longtime friend Jack Harris. The incredible organizational platform now in place here, combined with my 23 years within the JA network (the past 18 years as President of JA of Oregon based in Portland) gives me clear sight on the way JA fits in to our communities, and the larger educational landscape. As we look towards the next five years our vision is aimed at:

• Building additional JA Discovery Centers toward a long-term goal of reaching 90% of middle school students across the state annually with our JA BizTown and JA Finance Park programs.

• Expanding our 3DE Schools from the current six to 26.  

• Continued innovation and impact in our high school programs aimed at fostering financial capability and increasing economic mobility.

The collective passion and engagement of our people provides inspiration to keep driving our mission to empower our students with the confidence, skills and motivation to thrive; to build a better future for themselves and this region. My time in the Peach State is off to a great start and I look forward to the opportunities ahead for us to bring this vision to life, together!

-John Hancock