Jen is President of the Bush Foundation. She provides overall strategic direction and leadership for the Foundation and ensures that the Foundation board and staff are aligned and functioning well together. She feels lucky to have a job in which she gets to meet and learn from so many people who are working to make the world work better for everyone. Jen joined the Foundation in 2012.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Jen served as chief of staff and vice president of strategy for the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, where she led the creation of GiveMN.org and Give to the Max Day. Jen was also a consultant with McKinsey and Company for nine years and directed the Itasca Project, a CEO-led regional civic initiative in the Twin Cities.
Her current board roles includes Region’s Hospital, GHR Foundation, Independent Sector and Council on Foundations. She is involved in a number of civic groups and committees and enthusiastically serves as an election judge. She also teaches a graduate course in philanthropic history and strategy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She has been honored as a “40 Under 40” leader by the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Business Journal, as one of the “100 Minnesotans You Should Know” by Twin Cities Business Magazine, and as a NextGen Fellow by Independent Sector.
Jen has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. She has two great kids and one great husband.
Notes from Jen
- JULY 19, 2022 | Philanthropy's role in systems change
- MARCH 22, 2022 | Equity and open grantmaking
- DECEMBER 14, 2021 | What reparative action means to us
- JUNE 17, 2O21 | Upping our commitment to community-based philanthropy
- MARCH 2, 2021 | Where we're headed
- OCTOBER 12, 2020 | Learning, relearning and unlearning
- JULY 9, 2020 | Black lives matter
- MAY 30, 2020 | Building from tragedy: commitment to making our community better
- MAY 11, 2020 | Supporting staff to grow and go
- APRIL 8, 2020 | Turning optimism into action
- MARCH 3, 2020 | Investing in community problem-solving
- FEBRUARY 4, 2020 | Investing in you
- DECEMBER 10, 2019 | Strategy push
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 | Equity in practice
- JULY 9, 2019 | Managing up for leadership
- MAY 21, 2019 | Goals for a decade: revisited
- MARCH 19, 2019 | Queer eye for leadership
- FEBRUARY 11, 2019 | Doing more good
- NOVEMBER 13, 2018 | Venturing out from our bases
- OCTOBER 25, 2018 | bushCONNECT + how change happens
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 | Philanthropy that's better for everyone
- AUGUST 7, 2018 | Working backward from impact
- JULY 11, 2018 | The opportunity in Native-focused philanthropy
- JUNE 18, 2018 | Sharing progress and spreading optimism
- MARCH 20, 2018 | Leadership development on $0 a day
- FEBRUARY 27, 2018 | Leadership in context
- FEBRUARY 13, 2018 | Embracing the not-simple in all of us