Jenny Niklaus

Passionate, mission driven, innovative, empathetic and fun loving are just some of the words that have been used to describe Jenny’s approach to her life and work in the nonprofit sector in Santa Clara County for close to 30 years. Jenny began her career at Community Solutions with women and children who were victims of violence, continuing that work for a decade, first with the YWCA of Santa Clara County and then Support Network for Battered Women. Jenny still considers this work some of the most powerful and personally impactful of her career. After having a tremendous impact in the field of ending violence against women and children, Jenny moved to working with those living in poverty by becoming part of the leadership staff at Sacred Heart Community Service and Catholic Charities. This work eventually led to her to becoming the CEO of HomeFirst where she led the agency for a total of six years.

During her time at HomeFirst, Jenny was fortunate to become a Senior Fellow at American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley (ALFSV), where she eventually became the Chief Impact Officer working to support leaders to use their leadership as a catalyst for dynamic social change. Jenny is currently the Chief Facilitation Officer for ALF Insights, the facilitation arm of ALFSV which is committed to bringing groups of people together in spaces of productive tension in order to build deeper relationships that lead to powerful community impact. Jenny received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California at Davis and a Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Yoga Instructor. She lives in downtown San Jose with her dog Maggie.