Samantha Jakubowski is Senior Director, Leading Places to Serve at Leading Edge. Before Boardified was acquired by Leading Edge, she was Chief Growth Officer at Boardified. Sam focuses on broadening Leading Places to Serve programming to serve more organizations, staff professionals, and volunteer leaders. (Read her full bio here.)

Get to know more about Sam below:

What does a “great place to work” mean to you?

A great place to work is human-centered, focusing on the individuals who do great work. Great places to work embrace the diverse range of employees, constituents, and stakeholders to set culture, strategy, and systems that drive impact. These workplaces prioritize open communication with and between these humans to empower their collective work.

What are you looking forward to most about joining Leading Edge?

Helping staff and volunteer leaders develop true partnership and collaboration. By setting a standard of strong shared leadership, we can level up the field’s talent, culture, and impact.

What’s something you’re excited about right now?

We have learned so much about our Jewish communities and their needs over the last two years. Right now, leaders—professional and volunteer—are uniquely positioned to make meaningful change to our organizations, systems, and infrastructure that can define the next decade. It’s daunting, but also powerful and exciting.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Make the implicit explicit. As much as we try to be, we’re not mind readers!

What’s your favorite place to travel?

For a break from Chicago's infamous winter weather, St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where the people are as warm as the weather. For anything else, Bologna, Italy, where the food is rich with history and love.