Jennifer Bryant, Program Manager for Community Wealth Building Initiatives at Washington Area Community Investment Fund(Wacif), appears on Everything Co-op. Jennifer and Vernon discuss strategies to preserve wealth in communities, and how worker owned cooperatives can be used as an exit strategy for retiring baby boomer executives. As Program Manager for Community Wealth Building Initiatives, Jennifer leads the DC Employee Ownership Initiative, a strategic investment to preserve legacy businesses and create new pathways to entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the staff at Wacif Jennifer worked for several years in the labor and cooperative movements. She is grounded in the belief that shared ownership and community wealth are central to building racial and economic equity. Jennifer is committed to revitalizing and expanding employee ownership in the District. She was a founding steering committee member of Cooperation DC, a grassroots group that organized trainings, learning journeys, and community popular education for low-income communities of color. She helped establish DC’s first Black Worker Center before moving to the International Labor Communications Association, a constituent organization of the AFL-CIO. She currently is a member of the DC Cooperative Stakeholders Group which was initiated by the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development in 2016. Jennifer is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders Program, which brings together leaders across the country and across sectors to address health inequities and implement transformative public health initiatives. Her team’s project explores economic determinants of health and the impact of worker cooperative ownership on health outcomes in Southeast Washington.
