Jessica Bent

December 13, 2025

JESSICA BENT
Program Director of GeoFORCE

This spring, Jessica Bent joined GeoFORCE as its program director. She brings 13 years of experience as an educator and researcher to the role, and she believes that every student deserves an accessible high-quality pathway to achieve success.

Bent holds a Ph.D. in education (school improvement) and a M.Ed. (higher education student affairs) from Texas State University and a B.A. in communications from Southwestern University. She has published research in peer-reviewed journals.

Bent has deep professional roots in the Austin area. She served as director of research for the Charles Butt Foundation, leading a team of researchers in public opinion research on Texans’ and teachers’ perceptions of the needs of the public education system and distributing their findings and recommendations to state representatives. As program administrator of the Travis County Work-Based Learning/Summer Youth Employment Program, Bent helped build positive and productive partnerships between businesses and the community, establishing and maintaining over 150 job sites for 750 student interns each summer. Within this program, she sought to recruit business partners in STEM career fields to provide interns exposure and access to higher-paying careers. While working as the associate director of College Success Programs at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, Bent started the school’s first college persistence program to continue strong relationships with alumni and aid students in their college success.