Executive Education’s director of partnerships has never stopped learning and growing
Jennifer Landers
It’s easy to call the University of Denver campus “romantic” when it’s the place you met your husband of 26 years.
For Jennifer Landers, director of partnerships at Daniels Executive Education, that’s just scratching the surface.
Her parents, Richard Olson (BS 1960) and Janet Lister (BA 1963), met as DU students before starting a life together in the Mile High City. It’s where she earned her MBA in 1997.
And it symbolizes the things that drive her: community, curiosity and a commitment to the public good.
“I think that DU is just a beautiful place to be. The campus is a centering environment,” said Landers, who lives a very bikeable 1.99 miles away. “I really enjoy that opportunity to engage in ideas.”
When Landers was a kid, growing up in then-unincorporated Arapaho County, she wanted to be a teacher like her father. Mostly, she said, she loved the thought of being in an academic environment.
“It’s funny to me that I finally made it to a career in higher ed,” she said, “where I get to spend time at school.”
Perhaps ironically, Landers drifted away from the education field while attending the University of Wyoming. Business became more appealing. She imagined herself using her marketing and psychology degrees to become “a high roller in sports marketing.”
“But that did not happen,” she said with a laugh. Instead, she returned to Colorado to take a job with Arrow Electronics, marketing capacitors.
“Completely less interesting than sports marketing,” she said, “but it was a job and a paycheck.”
Arrow offered to pay for her MBA. Landers asked if she could attend DU, like her parents. The program changed her life.
Landers and her future husband met on an early cohort retreat, and then were randomly paired together for the very first group project.
Upon graduation, a classmate offered the bridge to her next opportunity—what would blossom into a nearly 17-year career at IBM as a management consultant.
It was the dawn of IBM’s consulting work, a period in which Landers was responsible for helping the company’s clients, partners and internal departments capitalize on new opportunities. She formulated models to improve operations and reduce costs; helped integrate technology with people systems and processes; and managed large-scale change initiatives.
Organizational design and development would come to define her professional journey.
When her kids were in elementary school, Landers was searching for summer camps that would help them become more engaged in their communities. She found two things: an in-school program called Leader in Me and Colorado Young Leaders, a nonprofit she would go on to lead after her time at IBM.
“It was really fun space to play in and see young people just thrive,” Landers said.
Soon, she had the opportunity to run an adult-focused leadership nonprofit, CiviCO. During her three-year tenure as executive director, she enhanced collaboration across higher education institutions, community organizations, businesses and professional organizations. Leadership, she realized, was not about being a “hero” to a team. The role meant being a “motivator,” something built through relationships, shared purpose and collective capacity.
“I wanted something different for my kids and ended up on this journey that then brought me to this role with [Daniels] Exec Ed,” she added, “to really think about how we develop professionals to be stronger in their roles and make more impact for their organizations and their communities.”
In her current position, Landers works on both the marketing and the sales side of Exec Ed. Every day, she is focused on building organizational partnerships, understanding leadership and workforce needs, and bringing those market insights back to Daniels to help shape relevant learning experiences. She’s constantly thinking about how her team’s programming meets market demand, while also getting organizations curious and excited.
“Figuring out how to engage that network and what Daniels is doing is exciting to me,” she said. “I think we have a team that has built a culture where we really value each other’s strengths and come together to reach big goals.”
It’s that community that keeps her going. This fall, Landers will be joining the Daniels Executive PhD program. Why? Initially, she couldn’t put her finger on it.
“But at the end of the day, it allows me to create a sandbox to play with ideas,” Landers said. She sees the EPhD as an opportunity to connect rigorous research with practice. Specifically, she’s interested in studying the conditions that help Colorado’s leadership ecosystems thrive. “There’s an opportunity to use Daniels as an authentic place to explore something that I’m passionate about,” she added.
In other words, it’s a way to write a new chapter in her lifelong love story.