With a background in communications, marketing and business operations, Jenna brings her interest in systems thinking and design to Cincinnati Cares’ endeavors to understand and support nonprofit organizations, the engagement of volunteers and the ecosystem as a whole.

Jenna is an idea-generator with expertise in team and organizational systems, with an affinity for cultivating strong partnerships and collaborations. She is motivated by the integration of creative and critical thinking in the dissolution of systemic challenges and the pursuit of positive change.

Before joining Cincinnati Cares in May 2017, Jenna worked for six years at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where for the last three years she was senior associate director of research planning and management.

She managed ongoing projects critical to the school’s research mission, providing oversight and support for the planning and programming of research space. She was liaison with departments and served on faculty committees on behalf of the Office of the Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer in an effort to inform the development of strategic plans, improve internal processes and the management of space resources and to identify opportunities for enhanced research space utilization. She provided strategic and decision support to the Associate Dean of Research Integration and the administration of the PSOM Biomedical Research Core Facilities.

While in Philadelphia, Jenna earned her master’s degree in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania, making her a natural to help businesses in our region with their organizational diagnosis of their community engagement goals and approaches. While in Pennsylvania, she was active in the Microfinance and Women’s Empowerment group and was a fellow in the Fox Leadership International Fellow/Faculty Aide program, two programs that will help put more fire into her abilities to lead and manage organizations through change and process improvement as well as helping with their organizational storytelling.

Volunteerism comes natural to Jenna as early in her career she contributed over 1700 hours of environmental and disaster service for local governments and nonprofit groups as a member of the award-winning Americorps program in Cape Cod. While in New England, she also worked for the Swarovski North America internationally known crystal manufacturer.

A native of Cincinnati and graduate of Princeton High School, Jenna received a bachelor’s degree in visual communication from Ohio University.