Jennifer Barnes Eliot is Director, Development and Partnerships at the Council for Opportunity in Education. She has 20+ years of experience in development and communications and relishes being an advocate and storyteller for mission-driven organizations, supporting long-term sustainability through strong donor engagement. Jennifer has worked in marketing, communications, development, and fundraising for a variety of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the U.S. and abroad, including time in Thailand, Turkey, Hong Kong, and India. About midway through her career, she began focusing on education and young people and discovered the sweet spot where passion and expertise overlap. She’s lived in and around D.C. with her family for many years, first landing there to earn her B.A. in Public Communication from American University.