Jennifer W Owen

Jenni Owen is on the faculty of the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy where she focuses on government-research and government-philanthropy partnerships. She was on leave to serve in government from 2017-2025 as Governor Roy Cooper’s first policy director and then as Director of the North Carolina Office of Strategic Partnerships (OSP), appointed by Governor Cooper to this new position in state government. As OSP director, she led the development of the office and of the replicable OSP model for cross-sector partnerships between and among state government, universities/colleges, philanthropy, and other entities. Among other results, this cross-sector partnership work continues to help government agencies’ increase their capacity to conduct and use evidence to improve policy.

Prior to her government leave, as a faculty member and Director of Policy Engagement at Sanford, Jenni taught and advised undergraduates and graduate students, directed the North Carolina Family Impact Seminar legislative education initiative (part of the network of state Family Impact Seminars); co-directed the Duke University School Research Partnership; and was the first director of the University-Based Child and Family Policy Consortium.

She has been the principal investigator on numerous multi-sector projects and initiatives, including an Oak Foundation-funded effort focused on non-profit capacity building; a John Rex Endowment project on children’s positive mental health; and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s Professional Development Initiative. She has served as a consultant to government, philanthropy, research, and non-profits, including the University of North Carolina system and the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers. In 2007 she was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship to South Africa and has partnered with South African colleagues ever since. In 2010, she launched DukeEngage Durban (South Africa), an annual immersive service program for undergraduates.

Before coming to Duke, Owen was a senior policy advisor to Governor James B. Hunt Jr. and the planning director for the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy. She regularly serves on public and non-profit boards and in other civic engagement roles. Examples: commissioner on the North Carolina Indigent Defense Services Commission, member of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s Task Force on Early Childhood Obesity Prevention; board member of El Futuro; on the Policy Council of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management; member of the Pew Results First Advisory Group; and member of the National Conference of State Legislatures Evidence-Informed Policymaking work group. She currently serves on the Duke-NC Central University Clinical and Translational Science Institute Regional Community and Partnership Advisory Committee, on the myFutureNC Advisory Board of Commissioners, and on the Transforming Evidence Network Advisory Group.