11 years ago, Ms. Jena Roscoe stepped outside of the White House, where she had worked in the second term of the Clinton Administration as President Clinton's deputy associate director of the then White House Office of Public Liaison (now called the Office of Public Engagement), and into the life of Operation HOPE.
Jena was the youngest person to speak at the Democratic National Convention, and caught then candidate Bill Clinton's eye as a "star" young thinker of and for our nation's future. President Clinton was absolutely correct. Jena probably possesses a genius I.Q., can take detailed notes in her head, is a one-person database on Washington, D.C., and represents one of that rare breed in Washington, D.C. that remains idealistic, believing in the best in people, and committed to public service over private politics. Frankly, it has been Jena Roscoe, now Operation HOPE's senior vice president and chief of government relations and public policy, that more than anyone has managed and maintained Operation HOPE's high-level relationships covering the last three Presidential Administrations.
Jena, with all the options of the world at her door, at the end of the Clinton Presidency, decided to accept my offer to open and grow our first ever Operation HOPE Office of Government Relations (now our HOPE Office of Government Relations and Public Policy). That was 11 years ago, and today the office that Jena leads has influence spanning from Washington, D.C., to Brazil, South Africa, Morocco, France and beyond.
On the anniversary of Jena's 11th year with Operation HOPE, the entire Operation HOPE family joins me in saying "thank you" to Ms. Jena Roscoe.
John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and a member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama