News

JA volunteer Jennifer Leitsch named as a DBJ Top Forty Under 40 for 2014

Jennifer Leitsch

JA is thrilled that Jennifer Leitsch, corporate responsibility manager for Prologis, is being recognized as one of the Denver Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 for her outstanding community leadership.

Sustainability is a cornerstone value at Prologis and Jennifer has a critical role at the company to manage the development, implementation, and tracking for Prologis’ community involvement programs and sustainability reporting.

JA is one of the many community partners of Prologis, working directly with Jennifer to annually recruit and train 50 Prologis employees as JA volunteers.  Prologis strategically deploys their JA volunteer in three Montebello and Aurora area schools, close to the company’s office in order to build deep impact with these students.  Jennifer takes the lead in coordinating the JA volunteer effort, plus organizes employees to provide resources for other school needs like backpack drives for back to school, coat drives during the winter, school/playground maintenance and tutoring throughout the school year.  Jennifer also leads the effort to inspire and engage 140 employees each year, over half of the company’s Denver workforce – they have collectively raised $95,000 since the company started participating in the JA Bowl-A-Thon five years ago.

Jennifer successfully organized and implemented Prologis’ first IMPACT Day, a global day of service for all Prologis employees – 1,400 Prologis employees volunteered more than 7,000 hours with 55 nonprofits around the world on May 17, 2013.  JA in Denver was proud to be part of that day, pairing volunteers at Sable Elementary and at JA Finance Park for a day volunteering with students.

In addition to working long hours with a tenacious travel schedule, including international to serve Prologis’ global footprint, Jennifer makes time in her schedule to volunteer.  She is an active JA classroom volunteer – in the past four years, she has taught 14 JA programs, mainly at the high school level, and has mentored over 300 students.

“It’s so rewarding to teach high school students about personal finance and career skills, especially since the students will be graduating and leaving home soon. I can easily see how the lessons I’m teaching them will help them be successful.”

In addition to her significant work with JA, Jennifer promotes sustainability issues as an active member of the Office of Sustainability Advisory Council, appointed by Mayor Hancock for a two year term, and member of the Managing for Sustainability Advisory Council, at UCD Business School, where she earned her Masters of Business Administration.

Please join us in congratulating Jennifer!  Click here to read more about Prologis’ partnership with Junior Achievement.