Leading with Compassion: Communication Alumna Jennifer Clark Becomes First Female CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Louisville

Nov. 6, 2024

By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts & Sciences

Jennifer Clark’s experience as a communication major opened her to many opportunities to be of service in her community, ultimately leading to a successful nonprofit career in which she is now the first female CEO at St. Vincent de Paul in Louisville (SVDP).

“I think women have always been involved in this work, and of course, women are a huge part of social services generally,” Clark said. “It's been a very female-driven profession, so to have an organization like St. Vincent de Paul that hasn't had female leadership before, I feel hugely honored and humbled, but mostly just very privileged to be able to represent all the women who work here.”

SVDP’s mission is to house, feed, and support those in need with compassion and dignity. As a lay Catholic organization, SVDP serves individuals and families in need, including those who are homeless, living in poverty, suffering from addiction, enduring mental illness or experiencing acute economic crisis. Founded in 1853, it offers a continuum of care that includes food, shelter, affordable housing, counseling, quality out-of-school time programs for youth, and emergency financial assistance with rent and utility bills.

Clark, ‘06, graduated with a BS in communication. While studying at UofL, she was a member of the honors program, which has a major emphasis on service, and she also served on the Student Activities Board. As a Bonner scholar, she completed hundreds of hours of community service as an undergraduate student and had the chance to participate in a program that had been a collaboration with AmeriCorps at the time.

“It really introduced me to the nonprofit sector and I made a lot of connections that led to a couple of internships,” Clark said. “The connections that I made through that service and through those internships led to my first job out of school, which was managing a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.”

That first position in her career had been a collaboration between Transit Authority of River City and Louisville Metro Housing Authority, along with some other city departments and, marked a major turning point for Clark.

“After that, I went to work for Louisville Metro government and that was really where I got started," she said.

In her position today balancing the challenges of leading an organization with a personal passion for housing and helping the unhoused population, she is dedicated to doing her best to ensure the organization is always accomplishing its goals.

That means knowing the names of the parents, children, and pets that her organization serves day in and day out while also managing the bigger picture as CEO.

“My job is to be here for the frontline staff, for the case managers, and for the program aids,” Clark said. “That's really difficult at this level in a lot of ways because you're looking at numbers and you're looking at budgets and very high-level stuff. Those numbers represent people. And one of my favorite things about St. Vincent de Paul is that we are a campus and I work in the same place that the people that we serve live and there are opportunities to engage with people every single day.”

Remaining connected to the people she serves is important to Clark as she remains focused on helping people in need as a mission-driven CEO.

"I still have conversations with people about their complaints. I think a lot of people would look at that and probably think, ‘You're down in the weeds,’” she said. “And I see it as I need to remain connected to what are we doing and why are we doing it. How are decisions affecting people? That’s very important to me.”

Clark’s advice for students interested in a career in the nonprofit sector is to connect with the community while in school to form their own mission in life.

“Get out there and volunteer,” she said. “It's one of the best ways to learn about your community, it's a great way to connect with the issues that you care about and to learn more about them, and those volunteer projects can give you a lot of insight into what you really care about, why you care about it, and that can help you form your own personal mission and that's the most important thing.”