Director of Lifespan Faith Development
234-200-8845
[email protected]
Jenni began at UUCC in 2024 as the Director of Lifespan Faith Development. Prior to joining UUCC she was the Director of Religious Education at SouthWest UU in North Royalton for 5 years and at UU Fellowship of Wayne County in Wooster for 4 years.
Jenni (she/they) is a Credentialed Religious Educator at the Advanced Level through the Religious Education Credentialing Program of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She has been a UU for over 25 years since joining the UU Church of Akron in 1998. Jenni is a trained Our Whole Lives facilitator at all levels and has been involved as a facilitator and director of OWL programming for the past 25 years. She is also active in the Ohio Meadville chapter of the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) holding offices of vice-president and president from 2018-2021.
For Jenni, religious education is an opening up of possibilities for a person. For those younger ones, showing them acceptance, modeling and encouraging questioning, and lessening discomfort with open ends/loose threads/lack of a “right” answer. It is about creating opportunities to find points of entry for spiritual exploration and areas of spiritual excitement. It is about making bare topics and concepts that can feel “off-limits” for many people and giving opportunities to discover what is or can be spiritual about an individual’s chosen path. It is about giving language, practices, and community to include spirituality and religious life in one’s core, instead of as an adjunct to daily life.
“One important aspect of my professional identity is as a UU community builder and facilitator. I plan to be a guide for the people that I serve to develop the community that they need for the time and place that they find themselves. I work to guide and transform programs into truly multigenerational learning faith communities. I take the responsibility of deepening UU identity for all folx that I serve as one of the core parts of my work. It is important to understand ourselves in relation to the wisdom of the world’s spiritual traditions so that we can clarify for ourselves what it means to be a part of the world AS a Unitarian Universalist.”
She and her husband, Chris, have three young and emerging adult children and one grandchild. Jennni enjoys getting down and dirty in the vegetable garden and then creating great food for people. They love to travel and camp, especially near water.
Hours:
Monday: Weekly Preparation Time
Tuesday and Wednesday: Morning in the office, afternoon meetings
Thursday: Morning and afternoon in the office
Friday: off
Saturday: usually off
Sunday: off one Sunday per month