Jillian Reilly

Jillian Reilly is a founder, writer, public speaker, and consultant who spent her thirty-year career working in social, organizational, and individual change across Africa, Asia, and Central Europe. Over the course of her career, she worked at both the grassroots and corporate levels, facilitating planning meetings under shady trees and in air-conditioned boardrooms, helping multinational charities design multimillion-dollar projects, and assisting community groups in planning their hundred-dollar budgets. In other words, she has just about “seen it all” in the aid industry. Jillian’s first book, Shame: Confessions of an Aid Worker in Africa, chronicles her early career in international aid and the hard lessons it taught her about making change. She has been published on international affairs in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times. Jillian’s TEDx talk, “Vain Aid,” tells the story of her journey in the international aid industry and the lessons she’s learned about changemaking along the way. Her Courageous Conversations podcast series, funded by the Ford Foundation, interviewed African activists and explored what it takes for them to continually show up and make change throughout their careers.