Jennifer Vanica

Jennifer Vanica is a forty-year veteran in philanthropy and community change.

Born in a small Ohio farm town, her commitment to social change was shaped during the late 1960s when as a student she worked with Cesar Chavez organizing boycotts for better working conditions in California. After 20 years coordinating large public-private partnerships and raising millions of dollars for capital projects, Jennifer developed and launched the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, an operating foundation headquartered in San Diego's southeastern neighborhoods dedicated to community building and the resident ownership of change.

In her 16 years as President & CEO of the Jacobs Center, Jennifer worked alongside more than 3,000 community residents to transform blighted, abandoned industrial sites and launch one of the nation’s leading neighborhood revitalization projects -- The Village at Market Creek. She played the lead role in the creation and implementation of a pioneering Community Development IPO which resulted in 425 residents owning shares in the commercial center. Jennifer also forged financial partnerships that leveraged $100 million in public and private investment into the southeastern San Diego neighborhoods.

Under her leadership, the Council on Foundations bestowed its Critical Impact Award for innovative and bold solutions to enhance the public good. In 2009, Jennifer was recognized with the prestigious James Irvine Leadership Award for California leaders who are implementing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues, and in May 2012, was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Wittenberg University.

Jennifer spent two years as a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Community Change and four years as a Senior Fellow at PolicyLink, writing and speaking on the topic of leadership in comprehensive community change and power of large-scale civic action and community ownership as key to neighborhood transformation.

She is a partner, along with her husband, Ron Cummings, in the firm VanicaCummings Community Change Consulting. Jennifer and Ron parented three children and a number of foster children. They have four grandchildren.