Age: 39
Occupation: CEO of the Noble Network of Charter Schools

The head of Chicago’s largest charter network runs an 18-campus confederation with 12,000 students and an annual budget of $180 million. In the perennial argument over the role of charters in the public education system, Jones has an impressive stat working in her favor: Ten of the 12 top-ranked high schools in CPS’s 2019 School Quality Rating Policy rankings were in the Noble network.