A 1997 alumna of the Terry College of Business, Jennifer Nash worked in marketing research and fund raising before returning to the business college two years ago to work at the Institute for Leadership Advancement. (Photo by Peter Frey)

JENNIFER NASH
Corporate and Community Relations Manager
Institute for Leadership Advancement
Terry College of Business

JOB DESCRIPTION: “We have a corporate partners program within the institute, and I am basically a connection between those companies and our students. My basic responsibilities are two-fold: working to connect the companies with the institute and also to connect the companies with students.

“I work with companies that are interested in recruiting our students, help prepare students for job interviews and try to match students’ interests and talents with different companies. I use our corporate partners to arrange executive speaker panels and classroom speakers. I also work on the institute’s Web site, marketing materials, our annual report, newsletter and a speaker series.

“My job definitely has evolved since I began working. The institute is only about four years old. It started with just two faculty members and took off really quickly. They soon realized they needed a full-time staff person who could dedicate all his or her time to the details of running the program, and that’s when I came to Terry.

“Then we launched the corporate partners program, and my duties shifted somewhat. Since I started they also have hired another staff member to handle most of the student-related duties of the institute.”

TIME IN CURRENT POSITION: Two years.

TYPICAL DAY: “There really isn’t one. It just depends what’s on our calendar for the day. We might have events scheduled, and often students come by just to talk about what the future holds. Sometimes I go to Atlanta to recruit more partners to our program. Some days I just need to work on quarterly corporate updates, our newsletter or the Web site.”

MOST REWARDING PART OF MY JOB: “I am amazed by our students. They are so talented and seem so beyond their years in their commitment to their studies and how hard they work. It’s fun to see how much they grow from their sophomore to their senior years, and it’s great to know that we’ve been a part of that.”

MOST CHALLENGING PART OF MY JOB: “Juggling it all. I always have a lot going on with events and program activities. I wear a lot of different hats and have to be adaptable. It does mean that my job is never dull, and it can make it fun, too.”

PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCES: “My background is in fund raising. I came to Terry from a position as the development director for the School of Social Work and the College of Education, where I worked for about a year.

“Before coming to work for UGA, I did fund raising for three years for the Shelter and Advocacy Center for Abused Children, a non-profit organization in Augusta.

“After I graduated from the Terry College in 1997, I worked in Atlanta for a marketing research firm for a short while.”

IF I WEREN’T DOING THIS JOB, I WOULD MOST LIKE TO: “If money were not an issue, I would love to be a full-time volunteer. I love helping others, and I have to be doing something with my life that makes me feel like I am making a difference. I would love to work with any of the non-profit organizations in Athens, but what’s close to my heart are those groups that work with children. I’ve been a Clarke County mentor before, and I just love working with kids.”

OFF-THE-JOB INTERESTS: “I love Georgia football, of course. I am also going back to school here, working on my M.B.A.”

FAVORITE MUSIC: “I like all kinds of music, but my favorite is country.”

A BOOK I’D RECOMMEND TO OTHERS: “I haven’t read it all yet, but I would recommend Hesselbein on Leadership, written by Frances Hesselbein, the CEO of the Girl Scouts. We had an event with her, and she’s just amazing and so inspiring. She began her career in the Girl Scouts by volunteering, then became the head of her local chapter and worked her way up from there.”

THE PERSON I MOST ADMIRE: “My mother, Theresa Hartz, because she raised me as a single mom and we’ve always been close.

“She began working at Northside Hospital in Atlanta when I was one year old, and worked her way up to manager of the labor and delivery ward. She was always very inspiring and was well admired by her coworkers. She helped make Northside the largest labor and delivery unit in the country.”

THE ISSUE THAT CONCERNS ME MOST ABOUT TODAY’S WORLD: “Our issues relating to children, especially from low-income families.

“From my work as a mentor, I could see there were so many children with so much potential. But the way the system works—the way the schools are structured—these kids just weren’t given a chance. They get lost in the system, and it’s such a waste.”