PROFILE
Jennifer Brandel is an award-winning journalist, founder and organizer whose work spans journalism, civic engagement, democracy and entrepreneurship. She’s a dynamic, sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. The process innovations she’s created have spread globally, inspiring new practices, new units in organizations and even new organizations.
Brandel began her career in journalism reporting for outlets including NPR, CBC, WBEZ, The New York Times and Vice, picking up awards along the way. After launching the most successful experimental news series in WBEZ Chicago’s history, she founded Hearken in 2015, which helps institutions better listen and respond to their stakeholders.
Hearken took home the prize for “Best Bootstrap Company” at SXSW and won the News Media Alliance Accelerator. Brandel is a recipient of the Media Changemaker Prize by the Center for Collaborative Journalism.
In 2020 & 2022 she turned her attention to journalism’s role and relationship with democracy, launching the groundbreaking collaborative called Election SOS, and furthered the journalism systems change work through creating the Democracy SOS fellowship program.
She is a Columbia Sulzberger Fellow, RSA fellow, member of the Guild of Future Architects, and was named one of 30 World-Changing Women in Conscious Business. In her hometown, Brandel co-founded Civic Exchange Chicago which brings together civic startups in a collaborative learning community.
Brandel is also co-founder of Zebra’s Unite, a global movement and network of entrepreneurs, funders, investors and allies creating a more ethical, inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for mission-based startups.
She’s been a voice and character actor for stories on This American Life, Wiretap and Love + Radio. For fun, she co-founded Dance Dance Dance Party Party, a worldwide women’s only freestyle dance gathering.
Her career has included grape-picking in Tasmania, ghost-writing for the late film director John Hughes, and traveling around the country interviewing Baha’i communities for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States.
Brandel holds a BA in Art History and certificate in Integrated Liberal Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a certificate from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and studied at the Université de Montréal and University of Melbourne, Australia.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Healing Systems
Much of the harm individuals face is the result of poorly designed systems. When systems are built without the benefit of feedback from all stakeholders, they are likely to have negative impacts for those who weren’t heard from when decisions were made. One critically important system that has had devastating consequences globally is the corporate finance system of the USA. For decades, it has prized shareholder value above all else, and the startup ecosystem has mutated accordingly. Jennifer Brandel started her company Hearken in the belly of the hyper-growth culture beast, Silicon Valley, but questioned the logic along the way. She and three other startup founders started dreaming and writing about an alternative model, which has now gone global. Instead of “unicorn” companies, they are building “zebras.” Jennifer will share lessons from her journey and ways to build more inclusive systems.
From Transactions to Relationships: Optimizing Trust and Revenue through Engagement
The research is in and the data is clear: Engaged journalism increases audience trust in journalists, which results in audiences being willing to financially support journalism. To achieve this shift, newsrooms must change how they relate to the public they serve. Jennifer Brandel, engaged journalism pioneer and CEO of Hearken, will share valuable concepts and practical tips for how to shift the mentality and reality of your newsroom toward a relational model.
The Radical Acts of Asking and Listening
The best insights and ideas often happen outside the places they can be realized. Someone has a brilliant idea for a new product but lacks connections to people in that industry. Another person has a smart question for a person in power, but no ability to reach them to get answers. What if every company and institution had a way where useful insights from people outside of that organization could flow into them, be processed, and lead to action? Hearken is trying to make this possible, starting with the journalism industry. CEO and co-founder Jennifer Brandel will share her path and vision toward reimagining the assets of a news organization to be paired with the power and curiosity of the public they serve. She’ll share how with a few shifts in perspective, new potential can be unlocked and top-performing, award-winning stories can result.
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