Over the summer we said a bittersweet goodbye to Jennifer Obinna, one of The Improve Group’s Directors of Consulting and a member of our organization since 2013. Jennifer is returning to independent consulting, which she did before joining IG. While we will miss Jennifer’s presence in the office, we are glad she will continue to be a resource for when her skills can complement ours, and vice versa.
Many of you may associate Jennifer with some of the topic areas she found most energizing. Primary prevention efforts to end domestic and sexual violence are an area of passion and of expertise for her; she brought these strengths to our work with CAWS North Dakota, End Abuse Wisconsin, the Minnesota Department of Health, among other clients.
In this work and other topics, Jennifer also was passionate about taking an empowerment evaluation approach to build capacity of clients and community members. As she has written for The Improve Groove before, with this approach the evaluator plays the role of coach or critical friend, supporting organizations to take the lead in evaluation.
This skill in empowering people to improve extended to our office. Behind the scenes at IG, Jennifer supported and strengthened our staff, both as a mentor and in helping the organization design new opportunities for growth. Jennifer found these efforts gratifying and fulfilling, seeing the importance of helping build the field of evaluators.
Jennifer also played a lead role in making Technology of Participation® Facilitation Methods a key part of our practice. A Certified ToP® Facilitator and Mentor Trainer, Jennifer saw the value of facilitation to engage stakeholders and ensure participant ownership of our work.
Thank you, Jennifer, for your contributions to our practice and our people—we look forward to continuing to be partners!