Jackie Rodgers, Digital Communications and Public Relations

A life-long storyteller and communicator, I bring more than 20 years’ experience in creating and leading communications and marketing strategies that elevate an organization’s profile and influence and produce a positive economic outcome.

My passion is communications, branding, story telling and marketing. Talk to people, tell them intriguing details, gain trust, find that shared passion and lure them in, then transfer that passion. I have successfully done this for a Fortune 100 retailer, state and local government, a not-for-profit, one of sport’s most famous women, and a hospice company.

Audacity sometimes has its place. My first job out of college came from my boldness to just show up at a business with a self-pitch about why they would want to hire me. They did, and I was over-situated into the role of Commissioner of the Team Tennis league and one of my bosses was Billie Jean King.

Self-belief has a place. My curiosity led me to create one of the very first pet sitting services in Chicago, growing it to one of the largest in the country and caring for more than 100 pets on a daily basis. With no business point of reference, I sold potential clients on the concept through emotion and trust.

Doing what you love has its place. I was able to maximize Best Buy’s sponsorship of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club sponsorship to a $2.25-$1 profit ROI while driving $93 million in incremental store revenue around the 2010 World Cup. And I was able to head to South Africa for the soccer and to pet a lion cub.

Thinking differently has its place. While at Chicago Public Schools, my team of five and I drove internal communications for the District, where my work on the school closure communications earned me the right to create a new team as the Executive Director of Digital and Marketing. Our storytelling went digital for the first time, driving a dramatic increase across social media platforms and was highlighted by a bi-weekly YouTube broadcast of District news and features. We also re-imagined the website.

Doing good has its place. While at Ingenuity, data is the driver for the organization’s ability to pursue its mission of ensuring every child in every school has access to arts education. What we were not doing well was communicating the data to the widest range of stakeholders. I helped design more accessible language and shorter summaries of reports so parents, teachers, students would read them and be inspired to take appropriate action to ensure the mission’s outcome.

That’s the short story of my story. Now let me tell yours.

Our Equity Action Plan – Ingenuity

Do Ingenuity’s internal DEI practices match, mirror, and support our external mission-based programs and work? This overarching question has guided us over the last two years.

We’re excited to share Ingenuity’s first-ever Equity Action Plan (EAP): a living, evolving blueprint of our goals, values, and actions that will guide our progress. This is just the start. We know that achieving equity within and beyond our organization isn’t linear, a checklist, or an endpoint. As Ingenuity evolves, this

LOLLAPALOOZA ESTABLISHES $2.2M PROGRAM TO SUPPORT ARTS ED IN CPS – Ingenuity

CHICAGO – Lollapalooza organizers today announced the Lollapalooza Arts Education Fund, a $2.2 million investment to support arts education for more than 100,000 students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The world-class music festival will partner with Chicago’s leading arts education institution, Ingenuity, to distribute funding for transformative arts programs to CPS schools with the least amount of arts access.

“We have been a part of the Chicago community since 2005 and this investment allo

2019-20 State of the Arts Report – Ingenuity

The 2019-20 State of the Arts report employs a new scoring method, CSC 2.0, that improves the ability to track arts offerings in detail, identifies the key factors that make a quality arts education possible, and explores new ideas about how to translate these elements into a plan for school improvement by focusing on access and quality of instruction.
• 87% of elementary schools rated as Excelling and 92% rated as Excelling or Strong in access to any arts instruction.
• 65% of schools are rated

Ingenuity’s First Data Snapshot provides deeper look at 2019-20 CSC data – Ingenuity

CHICAGO, IL – Ingenuity today released its first Data Snapshot, Arts Education Access in CPS: How school size, type, and student demographics impact 2019-20 Creative Schools Certification, examining the relationship between race and ethnicity, school enrollment, school type, and a school’s level of arts instruction.

The Data Snapshot outlines conclusions that both school size (Lower Enrollment and Higher Enrollment), as well as school governance (District managed vs Non-District Managed), play
Chicago Sun-Times •

Lollapalooza teams up with Ingenuity to donate $2.2 million to CPS

Lollapalooza rolls into the city on Thursday, bringing concert-goers from all over the country, some of music industry’s biggest names — and millions of dollars for the city.

This year, though, it’s bringing something else: money for Chicago Public Schools’ arts programs.

The music festival’s organizers on Thursday are launching the Lollapalooza Arts Education Fund, in partnership with Ingenuity, an arts education nonprofit. Over the next five years, the program will invest $2.2 million to sup