Sometimes “wellness” extends beyond leafy greens and jogging regimes. For Jennifer Heisey, her wellness specifically starts and ends with spending time with good people. This translates easily into her job as the Vice President of Alumni and Donor Experience for the University of Cincinnati Foundation.
In this role, Heisey is responsible for providing vision and oversight to the Alumni and Donor Experience team which includes the UC Alumni Association, Annual Giving, Integrated Marketing and Events. She serves as the Chief Alumni Officer for the university and leads the UC Alumni Association, which serves its 327,000 alumni worldwide.
“At the University of Cincinnati, I have the privilege of working with college students who are in their formative years and then watching them grow in their career and lives,” says Heisey. “When I can positively impact someone’s life and help them on their upward trajectory, I know I’ve made an indelible impact.”
Heisey has served as Vice President at the University of Cincinnati Foundation for the past eight years, but has also held different roles at other institutes that’s given her a wealth of knowledge and experience. In her time in the professional world, Heisey has gotten to know herself well, which includes spending time with people who have good energy. As a self-proclaimed high extrovert, Heisey spends time with people who “inspire, motivate and challenge me in all the right ways. Most importantly, I find people who also give me a healthy dose of reality and a reason to laugh and smile!”
Along with prioritizing humor, another item up Heisey’s sleeve allows her to sleep easy at night; her intentional saving methods. In her early twenties as a college student, Heisey started investing and saving for retirement. Her savings have been diligent ever since. She says, “This has eased financial stresses and burdens in life and allows me to occasionally (and responsibly) treat myself to something that feels rewarding to me when I need it.”
While our jobs, or even life, can seem all consuming and serious, a consistent sense of levity is key in keeping a positive mental status for Heisey. “My dad always told me to take my work seriously, but to remember not to take myself too seriously, ” she says. “I try to bring that sentiment to the forefront when I need to reset my emotions, get some perspective and remind myself what’s really important.”
“A Leadership Style” is a column authored by WISe Wellness Guild founder Stevi Gable Carr and powered by Crunchmaster Crackers aimed at celebrating female leaders who have advanced in their careers because they have integrated work and life through whole-self wellness.
Glossary of terms: Womxn: noun, plural wom·xn [wim-in] /ˈwɪm ɪn/. a woman (used, especially in intersectional feminism, as an alternative spelling to avoid the suggestion of sexism perceived in the sequences m-a-n and m-e-n, and to be inclusive of trans and nonbinary women)
