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Jennifer Torai

Senior Leadership Development Specialist

In her current role, Jennifer (Jenn, she/her) provides consultation, coaching, and facilitates learning for nonprofit leaders across the nation. She is also a co-founder of Asian Women Empowered - a group that fosters civic engagement and leadership in the Silicon Valley, serves on the planning committee for the County of Santa Clara’s National Day of Racial Healing, and serves on the Professional Development Committee and Awards Committee for the National Association of Social Workers-California Chapter.
Professionally, Jenn has been an adjunct professor for San Jose State University’s School of Social Work, was the first Director of Learning and Member Engagement for the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, managed community engagement activities for Stanford Health Care’s Government and Community Relations team, oversaw autism services for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties with the Regional Center of the East Bay, and was the Social and Racial Justice Coordinator for the YWCA of Silicon Valley.  As a volunteer, Jenn has served as the Vice President of Professional Development for the National Association of Social Workers-California Chapter, as Co-Chair of the Asian/Pacific Islander Social Work Council of Northern California, and as a member of the Bay Area Regional Advisory Committee for the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.  She has also curated and co-hosted a Community Conversation with the Milpitas Community Educational Endowment to address diversity and inclusion issues within the school district, and was a Community Educator for Asian Americans for Community Involvement’s Silicon Valley Asian American Voices project. Jenn has a Certificate of Nonprofit Board Consulting through BoardSource, completed the Leadership Palo Alto program (class of 2017), was in the Northern California Grantmakers’ inaugural cohort of the Race Equity Action Institute (2019).  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz and Master’s degrees in both Urban and Regional Planning and Social Work from San Jose State University.
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​Contact Information:  jennt@cen.org