Communications Manager
Jenni Denekas returns to 1000 Friends as the communications manager after a transformative experience interning in our communications and development departments from 2015–2017 and graduating from our Land Use Leadership Initiative (LULI) in 2017. In the intervening years, Jenni built a career in nonprofit strategic communication and earned a master’s in multimedia journalism from the University of Oregon.
As a born-and-raised Oregonian from Clackamas County, Jenni has a passion for supporting local agriculture and exploring Oregon’s beautiful and varied recreational lands. One of her biggest accomplishments as an outdoorswoman—hiking the 382-mile Oregon Coast Trail—was made possible in part by the 1967 Beach Bill (HB 1601) championed by Governor Tom McCall.
When not working or hiking, Jenni enjoys gardening, analog photography, painting, and volunteering for Hope Partnership, a program that provides arts education and professional development for incarcerated youth. She lives in Portland with her husband and their “green-haired children” (plants).
jenni@friends.org | she/her/hers