Happening People

Jenn Clemo

“My dad went to Creswell High School,” says CHS alum Jenn Clemo. “I grew up here and my husband grew up here. We were both in FFA [Future Farmers of America] and in the same friends group. We started dating in college.” Clemo entered college at Western Oregon in Monmouth, and finished at the University of Oregon in 2009 with a degree in English literature. “That area of study helped me to be a good writer of grant applications, sponsorship letters and donor appeals,” she says. “I did a lot of student group and volunteer activities in high school and college. The nonprofit sector was an easy transition.” She took a part-time job while still in school with Eugene-based Rural Development Initiatives, a nonprofit focused on economic development in rural communities across the Northwest. She was hired full-time at RDI after graduation. “I was there for eight years,” she says. “I arranged meetings and facilitated workshops for partners and funders in Washington, Idaho, Northern California and all of Oregon.” She also contracted as an independent consultant for grant writing and continued her volunteer efforts. She led a fundraising campaign to relocate the local food pantry, Community Food for Creswell. She and her boyfriend Chris Clemo were married in 2011. “When our son Sawyer was born in 2015,” she notes, “I took a break from volunteering.” Last month, at age 30, Clemo took on a new job as executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Stewardship in Corvallis, offering training and resources to nonprofit board members. She drives to Corvallis three days a week. “The job was advertised on Craigslist, and the description seemed to apply to me,” she says. “I took the leap to a smaller organization.”