Jennifer Whitaker

As head of HR, Jen leads the overall human resources strategy for their rapidly growing company. Prior to joining Aspen in 2021, Jen has served in HR leadership roles in a wide variety of organizations with patient-focused missions, including most recently as Director of Talent Management at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, where she also co-led the organization’s development of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program. Jen spent nearly a decade in progressive management positions within Northwestern Medicine, a nationally recognized academic medical center headquartered in Chicago, covering benefits, HR systems, compensation, recruitment, and project management as the organization grew from 1600 – 3500 employees, as well as partnering on post-merger, integration and people programs. Jen started her career at Waldron & Company, a boutique human resources consulting firm headquartered in Seattle and with offices on the west coast.

Jen received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude from the University of Washington in Speech Communication and Spanish. She holds a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) designation from World at Work and a PHR-CA certification from HRCI. She is a certified trainer for Crucial Conversations and has an Instructional Design Certificate from the Association of Talent Development.