Jenny Heckscher, Director of Innovation Programs, Marketing and Outreach

Jenny Heckscher is the Director of Innovation Programs, Marketing and Outreach for the Center for Innovation Strategies. In this role, Jenny implements the Center’s strategy, communications and programming and builds relationships with students, clients and companies to support academic research, education and community engagement in innovation.

Jenny has extensive experience executing innovative programs and services in the private sector and higher education. As a learning and development consultant, she developed evidence-based learning initiatives for staff and faculty with a focus on leadership, diversity and inclusion. As program director for Ohio State’s gender equity initiative, she co-led regional efforts to develop a recruiting consortium, led the advisory board and managed an entrepreneurship leadership program for women faculty.

Jenny has also served as director of career management at the Fisher College of Business, where she provided career coaching and programming for graduate students, led corporate development efforts, and assisted employers with recruiting strategies. In this role, she led a team to develop and implement an award-winning on-line career management course.

Prior to joining Ohio State, Jenny worked for Nationwide’s retirement plan division as an associate vice president for product development and risk management. She assisted with the launch of a transformational trust company platform for new product innovation and implemented a fiduciary management system that is still in use by the national sales force.

She is also an adjunct faculty member for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, teaching organization theory in the online MPA program. She graduated summa cum laude from The Ohio State University with a dual degree in English and Education and earned an M.A. in Public Policy and Management from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.