Jenny loves all things school design. Her commitment to reimagining teaching and learning began when she was a principal at a small, innovative, school in rural northeastern North Carolina. Jenny continues the work today as a Partner with Transcend’s School Design Services, where she supports school teams and leaders to envision, build, test and implement over time extraordinary and equitable experiences for all.
Jenny is the former principal of Phillips Middle School in Edgecombe County Public Schools and co-founder of the North-Phillips School of Innovation, a community-rooted school model which provided students a liberating education focused on passion, purpose, resilience, student agency, and social and economic change. Jenny and the NPSI team collaborated closely with their community to design aligned graduate aims, design anchors, and signature learning experiences, including houses, an advisory time called Banner, and interdisciplinary Design for Change projects. This work led to a dynamic school culture focused on love, learning, and belonging.
Jenny fell in love with education as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching middle grades Math and English (in French!) in Burkina Faso, West Africa. She went on to teach high school Math in rural northeastern North Carolina as a Teach For America corps member at Warren County High School. Jenny still believes that Math is Life.
Jenny holds a Master of School Administration degree through North Carolina State University’s Northeast Leadership Academy (NELA). She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY Geneseo in French and International Relations. She is currently on the boards of Profound Ladies and the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership. Jenny lives in Warrenton, North Carolina, where she spends her time solving all kinds of puzzles, playing softball, golf, and pickleball, and hanging out with family and her 3-legged cat. You can check out a former passion project of hers, The Hummingbird Stories, a podcast she made with her dear friend Donnell Cannon and some pals from EdNC about reimagining education.