Meet the Team

Jennifer Lawrence is a senior organizational leader and consultant with over 20 years of experience across municipal government, nonprofit management, philanthropy, and community-led planning. Her work sits at the intersection of leadership, systems change, and the built environment, with a consistent focus on equity, community-led impact, and institutional effectiveness.

She most recently served as Executive Director of the Hideo Sasaki Foundation, a private foundation affiliated with a world-renowned design firm. In that role, she led grantmaking, strategy, operations, and partnerships that advanced equity-centered design, civic engagement, and community-driven solutions across the Greater Boston region.

Jen spent over a decade with the City of Cambridge, where she led and managed complex, citywide initiatives spanning sustainability, transportation demand management, climate communications, and cross-departmental collaboration. Her public-sector experience gave her deep insight into regulatory environments, budgetary constraints, stakeholder engagement, and the realities of implementing policy and planning. This experience enabled her to work in deep partnership with community, facilitating processes that built upon strong history, supported youth agency, and bridged technical expertise with lived expertise.

Previously, she was the Executive Director of Groundwork Somerville, where she honed her skills in equitable community engagement, working alongside residents, youth, schools, and city officials to design and implement programs rooted in sustainability and justice. This grounding in grassroots partnership has carried forward into every leadership role she has taken, shaping her approach to inclusive, community-driven planning.

Across roles, Jen is known for her ability to navigate complexity, build trust, and guide organizations through moments of transition and growth. She brings a pragmatic, relational approach to leadership grounded in listening, clarity, and action.

Jen lives in Somerville and remains deeply engaged in the civic, nonprofit, and philanthropic ecosystems of the region, serving as secretary on the Board of Naveo Credit Union, as a member of the Board of Built Environment Plus, and on the PTA of the Capuano Early Childhood Center of the Somerville Public Schools, where her daughter is enrolled in Pre-K.