I'm Jenn Rowell. Nonprofit governance and leadership advisor and host of The Nonprofit Governance Architect podcast. For more than 25 years, I've worked inside nonprofits, in leadership, operations, communications, and alongside boards, through growth, conflict, and transition.

Along the way, I noticed the same patterns again and again. Boards and executives who couldn't agree on who decides what. Founders whose identity had become tangled up with the organization. Executive Directors carrying far too much alone. Necessary conversations that kept getting postponed because everyone could feel how hard they'd be.

What I learned is that these problems are rarely about bylaws or org charts. They're about trust, history, power, and people doing their best with what they can see. Structure matters, but it's not usually where the problem starts, and it's not where the fix starts either. That's the work I do now. I help nonprofit leaders see what's really happening beneath a stuck situation and figure out what to do next, with clear scope, honest conversation, and no jargon.

MBA| 10+ years experience as a board member & CEO | 20+ years in human services | Rotarian

I live in California's Bay Area, where you'll find me lifting heavy, planning my next family trip and playing with my chickens.