Profile: Jennifer Rogers
Jennifer Rogers is the conference and events manager in Business Services. During the academic year, she works with staff, faculty, and students to plan events around campus. The events vary from size; some are as large as Picture Yourself at Emerson, Orientation, and Family Weekend, while other events are smaller and sometimes not even advertised. Smaller events run the gamut from independent bookings with students for film shoots and conference room bookings at 20 Park Plaza to a faculty member using the Bordy Theater for a final class presentation and a student Esports event at the Lion’s Den.
Rogers also coordinates with other departments whose services are requested for events, including Media Services for anything audiovisual-related, Bon Appetit for catering, and Facilities for room setup. All spaces on campus during the academic year are reserved for use by the Emerson community only. Once students leave for the summer, the College opens up the campus to summer conference groups.
Rogers manages all events for summer conferences on campus. The College typically hosts 20 to 25 education-focused groups from all over New England to use campus spaces for their conferences. For example, the College hosts a group of 8th graders that comes in August for two nights. During their visit, they learn about the culture and history of Boston by going on tours and visiting museums. Another group brings in students who are studying at a nearby hospital so they have accommodations within walking distance. Additionally, faculty and staff who have an affiliation with an educational conference sometimes book the campus spaces. The summer conference groups typically utilize the residence halls, Dining Center, and classrooms/meeting spaces.
In April, Rogers will celebrate three years at Emerson. She worked in hotel sales eight years prior to coming to Emerson. She said, “Emerson is a lot like hotels with different departments. There’s a lot of thinking on your feet, and the main goal is to work with the community to ensure total guest satisfaction.”
Her favorite part about working at Emerson is the community. This sentiment was reinforced during the peak of the pandemic, when she participated in a COVID-19 working group. She said that the experience helped her realize how brilliant the community is and how hard it works to ensure that all community members thrive.
One of her responsibilities was to ensure that 300+ vendors were testing regularly at the Tufts Medical testing center. She said that although the peak of the pandemic was stressful, she really valued the opportunity to work with IT, Campus Life, and Human Resources in ways that they hadn’t worked together before and she enjoyed cultivating new relationships.
Rogers has a BA in communication from UMass Amherst. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her six-month-old son, Leo, who she said is incredibly happy and a great sleeper. She loves to travel anywhere warm in the wintertime, such as the Caribbean or Mexico. In the summertime, she is content to stay in the Northeast and visit Maine, the Hamptons, or Cape Cod. An avid reader of fiction and historical fiction, a few of her current favorite books are the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by alumna Taylor Jenkins Reid, the Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. She is a lifelong runner, but in the wintertime, when it’s hard to get outside, she enjoys Peloton and yoga.
Nancy Howell (Communications and Marketing)