About Jen Bluestein
Over the course of her career, Jen has lived in an abandoned building in Newark, NJ in an apartment furnished with camping furniture; driven with Bono and African activists across the Midwest and the South in a bus campaigning for AIDS and anti-poverty policies; accompanied former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords back to the site of her shooting for the first time to advocate for gun violence prevention measures, and recruited, trained and coached close to a thousand young, diverse activists and leaders on their paths to becoming candidates.
“Always in the middle of a good fight,” one newpaper said.
Jen returned to consulting after two years as Senior Director, Policy and Advocacy at the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, leading cross-team work on gender & reproductive equity, education, voting rights and criminal justice reform. She is especially proud of investments, post-Dobbs, in ballot initiatives in Kansas and MI that have helped to give women access to abortion care and change the landscape for Democrats.
Recently, as Managing Director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, Jen worked to protect and expand women's reproductive freedom, managing the departments of Research & Communications, Campaigns, Organizing, & Advocacy, Development, and Human Resources. Jen restructured and expanded the HR department, invested in internal communications and recruiting strategies, led a team of 110 people going to remote work overnight, and helped build a team that was for the first time majority non-white or bi-racial.
“The best wartime consiglieri around,” said a philanthropic executive.
For six+ years prior, as Deputy Director for US Advocacy, Policy and Communications at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jen led teams focused on driving economic and social mobility in the US by removing barriers and building education systems to be bridges to opportunity for low-income students and students of color. Her team conceived of and built a robust research & insights portfolio; structured and funded a multi-partner coalition to ensure high and consistent standards throughout the United States; identified and supported new and innovative ways of influencing policy outcomes; launched new areas of focus for the Foundation; and expanded partnerships in civil rights communities.
In 2013, Jen helped Gabby Giffords and now Senator Mark Kelly launch their gun violence prevention organization, Giffords, and has continued as an advisor to Giffords and Kelly.
“The most strategic person I know,” a prominent female elected official described her.
From 2010-2012, Jen supervised Communications and Research at EMILY's List, the nation's largest resource for women in politics. In 2012, EMILY's List grew to a record 2 million-plus members, elected a historic number of women to Congress, and raised $52 million to support women's leadership.
Jen also led Teach For America's efforts to build their alumni into a powerful force in politics, policy, and advocacy including founding the C4 organization Leadership for Educational Equity.
She created the "Heart of America Tour" for Bono and DATA (now the ONE Campaign) and worked to elect Cory Booker the Mayor of Newark, NJ.
Along the way, she represented magazines like Harper's, The New Yorker, and the New Republic and worked on political campaigns at all levels of government up and down the East Coast.
Jen lives in Massachusetts with her husband Tom, a history professor, their kindergartener, and their dog. Jen is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College with a double degree in English and Art History; she is loyal to the Oxford Comma and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.