After working as a lawyer specializing in real estate law for nearly 15 years, Jen shuttered her law practice to become the founding executive director of Generation Housing. It was while serving as Santa Rosa School Board president that Jen became keenly aware of the impacts of the local housing scarcity and unaffordability. Hiring staff – including teachers, staff, and high level administrators — had become challenging due to local housing costs. Mapping by the district during the Tubbs fire to determine the impact on its families revealed how many families were doubled and tripled up in homes — before the fires. The 2017 fires took the homes of 800 students and 100 staff members, and many more had to leave the area because of loss of employment due to the crisis.
Through her role as SRCS Board president and as a founding member of SoCo Rises, a group dedicated to putting equity and community voice at the center of wildfire recovery, Jen began taking an active role in the recovery planning process. Jen explained that, “at every meeting, about anything, convened by anyone, the topic that rose to the forefront was housing — our lack of it, the cost of it — and how tackling that was critical to our County’s health at every level.” Jen will serve out her term on the school board but has decided not run for re-election in order to focus on the launch and success of Generation Housing. When people ask her what she is going to do with her passion for education, she says “this. Gen H. Our educational systems and our students’ outcomes will be better when our students and teachers have the homes they need and can afford.” And critical to that, she says, is core to Gen H’s mission: building the public and political will for development of new housing.
It isn’t Jen’s first foray into creating housing options, she is most proud of her work facilitating the conversion of the Palms Inn into permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans and vulnerable civilians. Driven by the understanding that there is no stronger lever to pull to improve the local economy and environment, and educational and health outcomes of our citizens, than ensuring safe, and stable housing for all, Jen looks forward to applying the same creative-problem solving and collaborative spirit that made the Palms possible to create more much-needed housing in Sonoma County.
In her free time, Jen enjoys spending time with her family, friends and dog Lulubelle, or cycling Sonoma County. She always wears crazy socks on Saturday.