Jennifer Brandel (she/they) is a serial entrepreneur and civic innovator whose work centers a single animating question: how do we design systems that genuinely listen, respond, and evolve with the people they serve?

As Co-founder and CEO of Hearken, Jennifer has helped organizations around the world operationalize participatory processes that put communities at the center of decision-making. She founded the audience-first journalism series Curious City at WBEZ Chicago, co-led Election SOS — a $2M collaborative supporting journalists during the 2020 U.S. elections — and co-developed the Democracy Toolkit with the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University.

Beyond media, Jennifer co-founded Zebras Unite, a global network cooperative reimagining entrepreneurship toward more ethical and collaborative models. She is a Columbia Sulzberger Fellow, RSA Fellow, JSK Stanford Fellow, and member of the Guild of Future Architects and the National Civic Collaboratory.