Staff & Volunteer Leaders

Jenna Lindeke Heavenrich

Lead Analyst

Jenna is a mathematician storyteller with a passion for facilitating partnerships for lasting resilience, especially at the intersection of humanitarian assistance, foreign policy, security, and intercultural relations. With regional expertise in Asia and Micronesia, Jenna is an accomplished researcher and writer and has been published in the fields of intercultural relations, Asia studies, international development, and the utilization of evaluations at USAID. She is a current Council on Foriegn Relations-Hitachi International Relations Fellow, hosted by the Pacific Island Nations team of Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo. Prior to that, Jenna served as the Program Officer for YCAPS's Community Conversations seminar series and taught critical thinking classes at the University of Guam. She previously served as an analyst at the DC-based firm Frontier Design, providing high-quality mixed-methods research and analysis to clients ranging from the US Department of State and the U.S. Export Control and Related Border Security program to the UN Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jenna also developed an American Red Cross disaster team in close coordination with the US Navy to address key preparedness and response gaps at Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa, Japan.

Jenna holds an M.A. in International Development from American University: School of International Service, an M.A. in Global Cooperation from Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of International Relations in Japan, and a BA in Mathematics and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College. Jenna is a former Boren Fellow to Japan and Oberlin Shansi Fellow to India. She speaks fluent Japanese, conversational Hindi, and a bit of Korean.