Jennifer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of PEP Housing. She successfully managed the closing of over $1.3 billion in multifamily acquisitions and overseen the development, preservation and renovation of over 8,882 units of affordable housing nationwide. Jennifer is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law and served as the Chair of the Residential, Multi-Family, and Special Use Group.  Jennifer also serves as the American Bar Association’s Section Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s Unlawful Restrictions in Land Records Act Committee.

Jennifer serves as the Vice Chair of Urban Land Institute’s Affordable & Workforce Housing Council. She has taken on numerous roles with Commercial Real Estate Women Network (CREW) and served as an appointed member of various National Committees including, Network Industry Research, Member Education, and Scholarship Selection since 2016.  In 2020, Jennifer was inducted into the CREW Visionaries program.

In 2024, Jennifer was selected by the North Bay Business Journal for Forty Under 40.  In 2019, she became a Fellow of the American Bar foundation, a global honorary society of legal professionals and scholars who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and received the Gamechanger Award from Connected Women of Influence. She was also selected by GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum as a Women of Influence for her achievements in the Humanitarian category in 2020 and in the Independent/Non-Business Professional of the Year category in 2019.

Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University, where she graduated magna cum laude, and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. She is a graduate of the prestigious Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) program of the Council of Development Finance Agencies and completed an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  Jennifer is also an active member of 50/50 Women on Boards, Impact 100 Redwood Circle, Leadership Santa Rosa, and the Junior League of Napa-Sonoma.

Our speaker for March 13, 2025, was Paul Gullixson, co-author with Anne Belen, of “Inflamed: Abandonment, Heroism, and Outrage in Wine Country’s Deadliest Firestorm.” Paul has spent 37 years in journalism, including many years with the Press Democrat, and is currently the Communications Manager for the County of Sonoma. As Editorial Director of the PD, Paul was deeply involved in the paper’s Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the October 2017 wildfires. “Inflamed” tells the story of the rescue of 100 residents of Varena and the Villa Capri during the Tubbs Fire.

Varena and Villa Capri are senior living complexes operated at the time by Oakmont Senior Living and/or related entities in the Fountaingrove area. Villa Capri is an assisted living and memory care facility at the complex. According to Paul, assisted living facilities are poorly regulated and often do not have a culture of safety. The book outlines the many acts of heroism by everyday people, many of whom had come to the facility to help their relatives and stayed to get them to safety in the midst of an inferno and utter chaos. One of these heroes was R.J. Kisling, a welder from Petaluma who came to the facility to determine if his grandfather had made it to safety. When R.J. found many residents left behind at Varena, he helped get them safely away.

The book also tells the story of the criminal investigation of Oakmont and the civil suit filed by residents after the fire. No criminal case was ever filed against Oakmont or its owners or employees, although a civil suit for unlawful business practices was filed by the State and/or County of Sonoma. There were also a variety of civil suits filed for damages against the Oakmont entities. Some of these suits were ultimately settled. The book also tells the story of the failed efforts by Oakmont owners, and others, to recall former District Attorney Jill Ravitch (who had shortly before the recall effort announced that she would not seek a new term as D.A.) because of her involvement in the criminal investigation.

Our thanks to Paul for his presentation and for telling this amazing story.

Click HERE for a limited time to see Sunrise Rotary presents - "Inflamed" with Paul Gullixson.

On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.

Thanks for all the great pictures Warren! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!

Last Saturday volunteers from the Windsor, Healdsburg Noon and Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotary clubs, as well as strapping youth from the Healdsburg High School Interact club, enjoyed a wonderful three hours decimating as much Arundo Donax along the banks of the Russian River as possible. 

Close to one-half acre was reclaimed from the bamboo-like grassy plants and at one point a stone bench on the banks of the river was “rediscovered” and liberated! 

An informative talk by coordinators from the Russian Riverkeepers before the project began provided much information about the plants; one previous unknown fact was that scientists have measured that one acre of Arundo Donax sucks up between 5,000,000 and 10,000,000 million gallons of water per year!  This may explain why river levels are so much higher in Healdsburg than Guerneville (tongue in cheek). Rotarians enjoyed the fellowship of working together to permanently “correct” the environment from this invasive species.