Leadership Team

JC Lapierre

JC has been a dedicated board member, supporter, and advocate of Flying Kites since 2013, bringing more than a decade of leadership, generosity, and deep belief in our mission. In her professional role as PwC’s US Sustainability Leader, JC works at the forefront of helping organizations build strong, resilient, and sustainable businesses — experience that deeply strengthens Flying Kites as we continue to scale our impact and systems-level change.

What lights JC up most about Flying Kites is the way we work alongside educators and communities to create lasting change — long after individual programs end. She is especially inspired by Flying Kites’ focus on strengthening existing community institutions to better support girls – working through public schools, local leaders, and government bodies to create locally-owned solutions.

Vivian Onano

Vivian is a social entrepreneur, women and girls’ advocate, and the Founder & Director at Leading Light Initiative. In addition to serving as Vice Chair of Flying Kites’ Board of Directors, she serves as a strategic advisor to government leaders, philanthropists, and the private sector, and is currently an advisor to UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report.

Jarrett Collins

Jarrett Collins is the Chief Executive Officer of the Pan-Mass Challenge, the nation’s single most successful athletic fundraising event, leading all aspects of the organization’s operations and its professional staff. He has been riding in the PMC since 2009 and joined the professional staff in 2019. Prior to the PMC, Jarrett worked for Partners In Health, an international NGO, co-founding and operating their pioneering health sciences university in Rwanda, the University of Global Health Equity.

Jarrett has deep experience in for-profit ventures, too, supporting entrepreneurs as an early stage technology investor for the first half of his career. He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering from Tufts University and his MBA from the University of Southern California.

Leila de Bruyne

Leila co-founded Flying Kites in 2007 after many years of volunteering in Nairobi, Kenya. Inspired by a growing movement to ignite community-led development, she served as Executive Director from 2007 to 2024. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, TED, and on Good Morning America. In addition, she has been recognized by The Longines Women of Courage and Vision Award, The Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, and Bono’s “Herstory” initiative, celebrating women leaders and activists promoting gender equality.