Junior Achievement of San Diego County (JA San Diego) announced Erin Polek as the new Chair of its Board of Directors. Polek is the retired Chief Accounting Officer at Qualcomm. Polek joined the board in 2020 and serves on the Executive and Finance Committees. She has been a tremendous asset to JA San Diego, offering strong leadership and expertise while consistently driving the organization’s mission forward.

“I am honored to be elected as Chair of the Board of JA San Diego to further support its mission to provide key building blocks to young people across our county to help enable successful futures through a focus on financial literacy and career readiness. I look forward to working more closely with JA San Diego’s creative and dynamic management team and the other members of the Board, who bring their unique and diverse backgrounds and skills, to further support this important mission,” said Polek.

Polek brings over 25 years of leadership experience in accounting and finance. She joined Qualcomm in 2006 and served in a number of positions. Polek additionally serves on the Board of Aeva Technologies, Inc. Polek attended San Diego State University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting.

Polek succeeds retired Mission Fed CEO Debra Schwartz who will continue to serve on the JA San Diego Board of Directors.

About Junior Achievement of San Diego
Junior Achievement of San Diego County (JA San Diego) has been inspiring and equipping San Diego youth to achieve economic success by planning for their futures and making informed academic and career choices since 1950. By deploying proven, experiential programs, JA San Diego reaches more than 30,000 students annually through programs such as the McGrath Family JA BizTown, Mission Fed JA Finance Park, and the JA Fellows program which help students build financial literacy, work-readiness, and entrepreneurship skills. Annually, more than 3,000 volunteers serve as role models and enable JA to deliver experiential programs to students in 36 county school districts.