Jennifer Ford Reedy
President, Bush Foundation
First recorded April 22, 2020
Jen Ford Reedy is the president of the Bush Foundation, a position she's held since September 2012. In the immediate days that the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact the lives of people in our region, she encouraged the foundation to be as flexible as possible in how they can support people during this time.
That meant, in part, canceling the Bush Prize in 2020. With the money they repurposed from the Bush Prize, they swifty made four grants to response efforts around the region: $1 million to the Minnesota Disaster Recovery Fund, $500,000 to the South Dakota Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response Fund, $500,000 to the Dakota Medical Foundation’s Critical Safety Net Fund, and $500,000 to NDN Collective to support relief work in Indigenous communities in our region. In a conversation with Matt Ehlman, PhD of The Numad Group, Jen will talk about leadership and compassion during moments of uncertainty.
Prior to joining the foundation, Jen served as chief of staff and vice president of strategy for St. Paul and Minnesota Foundations, where she led the creation of GiveMN.org, Give to the Max Day, and the Minnesota Idea Open. Jen was also a consultant with McKinsey and Company for nine years and directed the Itasca Project, a CEO-led regional civic initiative in the Twin Cities. Her current community work includes serving on boards (like Region’s Hospital), participating in collaborative community efforts (like the Itasca Project), and volunteering with her kids. She and her husband met at the University of Kansas and are both proud Jayhawks.