Jena Haakenson

I have been in an admin-type role for about 8 years, and my career has been a journey of finding my niche wherever I go. I started with a degree in journalism, mass communications, and media studies from Minnesota State University, Mankato, after pivoting from my original English degree when I realized the limited career paths. My first role out of college was an admin-type position, but I was missing the event planning pieces I had done in high school and college, so I was privileged enough to pivot to a full event coordinator career. When the market I was in died down, I moved from Fargo, North Dakota to Minneapolis, and with limited event planning roles available at the time, I pivoted once again. Now, my main area of expertise is a hybrid of event planning and administration. In my opinion, any good event planner should have a lot of admin capabilities, and vice versa - admin roles should be versatile and should have event planning experience. It really helps with thinking on your feet and last-minute adjustments, and I feel like I am a well-rounded admin now because of my expertise in event planning. I found my current role at the Animal Humane Society through a former leader who became the CEO here. She was very influential for my career path and career learnings, and I would follow her anywhere, so naturally I followed her here. She was my leader at NMDP, which was formerly Be The Match and the National Marrow Donor Program, where she was my executive director. As the Executive Assistant at Animal Humane Society, I am the primary contact for three of our C-suite leaders, doing a lot of their email and calendar management, but more importantly, I also act as a liaison for them for our donors, our customers, and I facilitate board meetings and several committee meetings. I am very proud of the fact that I have leaders who give me their trust and their confidence, and are so willing to encourage me to take professional development steps and do what's best in my career. I think having that level of trust and faith in a person is very reflective of that person, and to me, that's one of the biggest achievements I've had.