Jennifer Mizgata

Jennifer Mizgata is a senior media consultant, specializing in leadership development, digital innovation and improving work culture. Jennifer writes Work Space, a monthly advice column for Fortune about work challenges, and regularly coaches managers, senior leaders and entrepreneurs on their careers and launching new ventures. She specializes in helping teams and people pivot, working with leaders and teams to shift their mindsets, work more collaboratively and bring new ideas to market.

Jennifer has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of journalism and technology. She has worked as a program director, impact investor and business strategist, using human-centered design to build new products that respond to audience and community needs and help create a more equitable world.

She was previously the Director of Programs for the Online News Association (ONA), where she founded and directed the Women’s Leadership Accelerator, a transformative program for women in media, which helped over 180 women significantly advance their careers and improve their media organizations. At ONA, she created industry-changing training programs, invested in award-winning projects, and managed key relationships with journalism partners and tech stakeholders. She directed many of ONA’s flagship diversity, leadership and grant programs, including Journalism 360, a partnership between Google, Knight Foundation and ONA, and the Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism education, which invested in collaborations between newsrooms and universities.

A digital strategist dedicated to public service, Jennifer has spent her career building communities online and offline. Before joining ONA, she served as the first social media lead for the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations agency fighting hunger worldwide. She lives in Baltimore, where she is currently pursuing an MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and a MA in Design Leadership from MICA.