Formerly the director of Flint’s BEST Project, which provides technical assistance and capacity-building skills for Flint-area social service, arts and charitable organizations, Jennifer Acree amassed considerable knowledge about the area’s nonprofit sector before joining Mott in 2013. A Michigan native who grew up in Vermont, Acree is a graduate of New York’s Syracuse University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in international relations. She returned to her native state to earn a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration on non-profit management and organizational development from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Like most Foundation staff, she has work experience in several sectors, working as an admissions counselor, research assistant and during her summers in college, as an ice-cream maker for Ben & Jerry’s™. She is passionate about the work taking place in the Flint-area and has a particular affinity for art and culture and the positive impacts these activities can have on communities.