A Sonoma County native and daughter of farmworkers, Jenny learned at an early age, the importance of creating opportunities for all. She has made it her lifelong passion to serve her community, encouraging people to go beyond expectations setting the path forward for others to follow.
Jenny’s love for her community stems from growing up in Sonoma County and working in the non-profit sector for over 10 years for both United Way and the American Cancer Society as a Community Development Manager and Fundraising Specialist. In addition to her non-profit work, Jenny has dedicated over 20 years to mentoring at-risk youth, she believes it takes a village to raise a child as she has been influenced by many family members and mentors in her life.
Jenny began her career in politics and government as the Campaign Manager for current Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore. Upon Supervisor Gore winning the election, she became the 1st Latina to hold the position of Chief of Staff as well as the first Latina Campaign Manager in the history of Sonoma County.
In the wake of the Sonoma County 2017 Tubbs Fire, which is the second most devastating fire in our state’s history, Jenny played a vital role as Chief of Staff and head of the Hispanic Chamber in the early hours of the fire outbreak. Due to her efforts, Spanish language volunteers were recruited and dispersed out to shelters for immediate response. In addition, she helped identify individuals to assist with emergency communications and translation to Sonoma County’s Spanish speaking community during a time of great uncertainty.
Due to her work and impact during the fires, Jenny was honored to be nominated by Assemblymember Jim Wood for the 2018 California State Assembly “Woman Of The Year” Award representing District 2. In recognition to her dedication to the Tubbs fire emergency and recovery efforts, she is also the recipient of the 2018 New York Life Community Service Award, the 2019 North Bay Business Journal’s Community Philanthropy Award and named as the 2019 Lifeworks “Champion for Change” an award given to leaders who have positively affected the lives of children, youth, families and communities in Sonoma County.
In addition, Jenny was one in four women recognized in 2017 by the Press Democrat as a “Latina Becoming a Force for Change”, she was also one in five people named as La Prensa’s “2016 Emerging Leaders” and featured in the 2014 issue of SoCo News ‘Women In Business’ edition as one of the few female political Campaign Managers.
Jenny sits on the Executive Board of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce(CHCC) as Secretary and is the former President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Sonoma County. It was during her presidency that the Sonoma County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce received the CHCC 2018 “Chamber of The Year” award, nominated by the CHCC’s statewide chamber network. In 2012, Jenny also founded the Sonoma County Hispanic Chamber Young Professionals Network which has now turned into a statewide network of young professionals.
In 2015, Jenny received the Soroptimist International of Healdsburg’s “Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women”. The Soroptimist Ruby Award honors women making an extraordinary difference in the lives of women or girls. Jenny has continued to be an advocate in her desire to see all women have a voice, the importance of finding self value and daring to dream. As part of the California Hispanic Chamber
Women’s Initiative, Ms. Chamberlain co-founded the Northern California Women’s Entrepreneur Leadership program; she also co-hosts the “Latinas Mean Business” podcast in which women throughout the state are highlighted and encouraged to grow professionally. In addition, She was a keynote speaker at Sonoma County’s 2017 Women’s March and most recently the 2019 keynote speaker for the Vagina Monologues and One Billion Rising event in Petaluma, CA.
Ms. Chamberlain is the Co-Author of the International Best Seller “Destiny Talks” featuring stories of 21 women and their journey to success. She also writes several inspirational/motivational blogs which can be found at: www.writeyour-story.com.
Jenny holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and attended Empire School of Law. In addition to working in nonprofit and government, she started her career in the for-profit sector which included international business, law, wine and played key roles in the establishment of two start-ups which have grown into global companies.
Her past community roles include: Vice-President of Los Cien Latino Leaders, Commissioner of the Sonoma County’s Human Rights Commission and Board Member of Reach For Home(homeless services and transitional housing). Ms. Chamberlain has also sat on various community committees touching the areas of education, health, financial stability and more.