Jennifer Jones, Rotary International’s first female president, is the perfect leader to spread the word about the good Rotary does in the world, and inspire its members to keep going.
By Diana SchobergPhotography by Monika Lozinska
The groups file out. More than a few people linger to get selfies with Jones and her husband, Nick Krayacich. One young woman, dressed in cobalt blue, shouts, "Congratulations and thank you for being a leader for women in Rotary!" More cheers. She and Jones bump fists as she departs.
"She's just amazing. She's a rock star," says Rhonda Walls Kerby, past governor of District 5890, who has been observing the scene.
"She makes everyone feel special. That's why everyone feels like they are best friends with Jen," says Eric Liu. Liu met Jones at the International Assembly in 2016, when he was an incoming district governor and she was the incoming RI vice president, and they hit it off.
Liu's sentiment is among the common refrains heard during a whirlwind weekend traveling with Jones. Over and over, people mention that she has an easy way with people, that for years everybody "knew" she would be the first female Rotary president, that she's a new kind of leader.
And that she's the leader Rotary needs right now.
Jones, 55, was born in Windsor, Ontario, and — save for a few post-college years working in the Turks and Caicos Islands and Manhattan — has lived there her whole life. The oldest of three children, she'd run lemonade stands to earn money to give to charity, and recalls organizing a carnival in her family's yard to benefit kids with muscular dystrophy. "Growing up, my parents had given us wings to do service in our community," she says. Today, her mom, dad, and one of her brothers and his wife are Rotarians. Her other brother created a painting that inspired Jones' presidential-theme ties and scarves.
Both Jones and Krayacich are originally from Windsor, but the two met in the Caribbean. Burned out after finishing university and working in the newsroom at a radio station, Jones took time off and worked at a resort in the Caribbean, while Krayacich, a physician, had just finished his internship in Toronto and went to the islands to go scuba diving. They struck up a friendship, and when they both eventually moved back to Windsor, they started dating and got married shortly thereafter.
In many ways, Krayacich, the governor-nominee of District 6400, is the opposite of Jones. He's quieter and more serious, preferring one-on-one conversations, traits that are suited to his vocation. "Jennifer is definitely an Energizer Bunny. She's outgoing and very much a connector," he says. "We complement each other very well."
Jones started her own television production company when she was in her late 20s, wowing bank officials with her business plan, negotiating a lease, and investing in hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment. "I've always wanted to carve my own path," she says. "Sometimes that's meant taking risks and making yourself open to new experiences."
One of those was Rotary. As a rookie radio reporter in the late 1980s, she'd covered the organization and remembers attending club meetings where the members were nearly all men. "I remember feeling very intimidated by the experience," she says. "I was in my early 20s. It was the power brokers of the community." Fast forward to 1996, months after she'd started her business, Media Street Productions. The manager of the local cable station invited Jones to a meeting. She realized she had found her home. "It was clearly one of the greatest gifts I've ever received," she says. "I didn't think walking through the door that day that it would change the trajectory of my life."
In 2001-02, she served as president of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland. Every meeting, she'd randomly pick a member, have them stand, and tell them why they were important to the club. "Every week, people would show up to see who the next person would be," she says.
It taught her a lesson about the importance of taking care of members, a priority now that she is RI president. "We were having fun, doing good work, and we liked each other," she says. "Sometimes we try to over-manufacture the reason why people join and stay."
At that point, her district had never had a female governor. She was under 40, and she "wanted to try to take that for a ride," she says. "I knew I wanted to put my full-on energy into Rotary. I loved it."
After her term as governor in 2007-08, she chaired the local chamber of commerce and the University of Windsor board of governors. "It was the most amazing precursor to sitting on the board of directors of Rotary," she says. "Each one was a building block."
EVANSTON, Ill. (June 29, 2022) – Jennifer Jones, member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, will be the first woman to take office as Rotary International President in the service organization’s 117-year existence on 1 July 2022.
During her one-year term, Jones will focus on building new relationships and establishing collaborations with organizations that share Rotary’s commitment to driving impact through humanitarian service and to developing leaders around the globe. She has also made Rotary’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion a key part of her presidential platform.
“Diversity has long been one of our core values and continues to serve as a foundation for how we interact with each other and our communities,” said Jones. “I know that my experiences and perspective as a woman mean that I bring a different lens to how I see and approach opportunities and challenges for our organization. I hope to be a catalyst for similar opportunities for leaders from all backgrounds that comprise the global mosaic of our organization. We are stronger, more creative, and more effective when we ask for and leverage those diverse perspectives to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges.”
As a professional communicator with more than 30 years of experience, Jones will also use her vocational strength as a storyteller to shine a light on the positive and lasting impact Rotary clubs are making to improve lives and strengthen communities across the globe. “This year, we are going to bring Rotary service projects center stage around the world. We will put a special focus on visible, high impact acts of service across our areas of focus, drawing attention to the incredible work that Rotary members are doing.” said Jones.
Jones officially takes office as Rotary International President on 1 July 2022 in Ottawa, Canada at the mid-point of her cross-country tour. Dubbed Imagine Rotary Canada, Jones is traveling coast-to-coast, stopping at twelve hubs along the way to meet with local officials and participate in projects that address pressing issues including food insecurity, plastic and litter in waterways, and the safety of seasonal guest workers.
Jones will also mark her year as president by touring model examples of Rotary's impact in action. Throughout the year she will connect with Rotary members and clubs spanning the globe to explore and share learnings from Rotary projects, with a focus that includes:
- the vital role of women health workers in the efforts to end polio in Pakistan;
- a day in the life of a community health worker helping to reduce malaria in Zambia;
- the efforts of 600 Rotary clubs to improve education for underserved students in Guatemala;
- a former refugee who is now a Rotary Peace Fellow at the Rotary Peace at Makerere University, in Uganda;
- health workers reaching children with live-saving vaccines in remote islands in the South Pacific; and
- Rotary's efforts to bring clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to all of Haiti
As president, Jones will oversee Rotary’s top goal of eradicating polio. “When we harness our connections, deepen our relationships, and create new partnerships - our collective efforts can change lives for generations,” said Jones. “There is no better proof point of our impact than our effort to eradicate polio.”
Alongside its Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, Rotary has achieved a 99.9 percent reduction in polio cases, and contributed US $2.4 billion to protect more than 3 billion children from this paralyzing disease. Nearly 19.4 million people are walking today who otherwise would have been paralyzed by this vaccine-preventable disease, and 1.5 million people are alive who otherwise would have died. With the infrastructure Rotary helped create to end polio, a lasting global health legacy is now being used to protect millions of people from other diseases – including Ebola, malaria, and COVID-19.