About Jen

Background

In today’s corporate landscape, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) hold unprecedented significance.  Jen’s unwavering commitment to DEIJ spans 30 years in both her personal and professional life.  With over two and a half decades of experience cultivating and guiding diverse teams across various ethnicities and generations, Jen is an experienced team and leadership coach, facilitator, and speaker.  Jen's dedication to team coaching, leadership development, and fostering diversity has been the driving force behind her remarkable career.

Jen's background is rooted in a 25-year career spanning international education, higher education collaboration, and nonprofit management. Throughout this period, she successfully assembled and led multiple teams within a global organization, overseeing pivotal initiatives for domestic and international government and corporate partners, co-launched a nonprofit, and raised over 2 million dollars in funding.  Jen has consistently engineered breakthroughs with leaders and multicultural teams by aiding them in assessing the present, jointly envisioning the future, and committing to a lasting impact over time.

What sets Jen apart is her unique cross-cultural and intergenerational perspective. Born in the United States and raised in Australia, she embarked on a transformative journey after high school, spending nine months traveling with a performance group dedicated to addressing social issues through the arts. Subsequently, she pursued her education at a historically black college, where she was the only white woman in her graduating class. This profound experience instilled in her a commitment to fostering collaboration across ethnic, gender, and age boundaries to effect meaningful change in both individual lives and broader culture.

Jen infuses her work with the vibrancy of her personal journey, channeling her enthusiasm and dedication to human connection, particularly in her interactions with young people. She played a pivotal role in co-founding the arts-based campaign "Hit the Streets" and has since taken the lead in organizing numerous youth retreats, workshops, and study sessions geared toward driving social change. Jen's life and career are a testament to her unwavering belief in the power of unity and collaboration to bring about positive transformation.

Education

Jen is a credentialed coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as well as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), trained in Positive Intelligence and the Team Diagnostic Survey (TSD). She also holds a Master’s degree in International Education Development from Columbia University, Teachers College, and a Bachelor of Science in Child and Family Development from Benedict College. She has completed a Leadership Development Program with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL).