Jennifer Vernon

Jennifer leverages nearly 20 years of experience in economic development, operations, marketing and research to help energize communities and organizations about their future. She specializes in guiding organizations on paths toward excellence.
Over the course of her consulting career, Jennifer has developed comprehensive community and economic development strategies for cities, counties, and regions. She has assessed and developed organizational strategies, ecosystem alignments, recovery strategies, marketing plans, investment guidelines, and talent alignment initiatives to serve a variety of clients. She has worked nationwide to include communities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
The majority of Jennifer’s career was spent in investor-based economic development organizations. Through that perspective, she has the keen ability to intuit client needs and then leverage resources and develop strategies to best satisfy those needs. In her previous role, Jennifer and her team led the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in developing its transformative new strategy.
Her former experience includes serving as a senior manager at EY where she and team were charged with scaling up a national practice for economic development. Prior to EY, she was a senior consultant at Avalanche Consulting and led global marketing, strategy, and operations for the Upstate SC Alliance, a 10-county regional economic development organization representing the Greenville-Spartanburg area. She also worked to promote international trade resources in her home state of Mississippi.