Jenna Farineau

Jenna Farineau

Communications Manager

Meet Jenna, our dynamic Communications Manager here at ActionAid USA. She leads the organization's communications and branding strategy with her expertise in engaging grassroots supporters and amplifying ActionAid’s work through digital channels. She started her journey as a Digital Communications Intern and later served as the Digital Communications Officer, continuing to advance ActionAid’s mission through strategic storytelling.

Prior to joining ActionAid, Jenna worked with the Agency for the Development of Women and Children to establish a Seed and Cereal Bank aiming to eradicate food insecurity in the North Bank of The Gambia. She also lent her skills to ActionAid Senegal, where she supported with video documentary work to helped raise awareness of the organization's partnerships with smallholder farmers and women’s groups.

Jenna is a graduate of College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a B.A. in Human Ecology specializing in climate politics, sustainable food systems, and graphic design. She spent most of her college career attending United Nations summits and farming across France, Ireland, Ghana, and Senegal. With her unique combination of skills and experience, Jenna is a valuable asset to the ActionAid team and a champion of impactful communications in the nonprofit world.

Some fun facts about Jenna when she’s not editing content and strategizing campaigns: she considers herself an amateur chef and bartender, she can tell you the family names of most edible plants (her favorite is arugula which is in the brassicacea family), and she can teach you how to change the brake pads on a car!

Why are you working with ActionAid?   

Because ActionAid truly speaks truth to power. There is a genuine crossover in how I live my personal life through social justice, and I’m grateful I don’t have to dim that light in fighting for a better world with ActionAid.  

I’m an expert! Talk to me about:   

Food Security; Right to Food and Agriculture; Climate Change; Climate Justice; Storytelling; Social Justice; Women’s Rights. 

POSTS BY Jenna Farineau

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Show Up, Fight Back: Envisioning a new social contract to build a just, equitable, and sustainable future

December 3, 2020 By

Tune in to the third and final webinar of our series Show Up, Fight Back: Tackling Systems of Oppression in 2020 as ActionAid’s new Secretary-General Julia Sánchez brings a critical perspective on feminist leadership to our own policy experts vision for a new social contract and a new economy that is…

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If women stop, the world stops

March 6, 2020 By

By Niranjali Amerasinghe & Jenna Farineau “Women’s rights are human rights.” Famous words delivered by then First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference for Women. The conference is best known for resulting in the Beijing Action Plan, which not only recognized women’s rights as human rights…

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Seven ways to #BeBold this Giving Tuesday

November 26, 2019 By

Giving Tuesday is an international day of generosity that occurs just days after the two biggest shopping events of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Kicking off the giving season, it’s a day to volunteer, help those around you, and donate to organizations that are doing some incredible work.…

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Investing in a better future: how TIAA has it all wrong

August 6, 2019 By

Seventeen years ago, ActionAid selected the financial services company TIAA to manage our staff’s retirement funds because we believed them to be a responsible investor. However, we have become increasingly concerned about TIAA’s investments in farmland — both here in the United States and in countries like Brazil. What most…

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World Refugee Day 2019 Spotlight

June 20, 2019 By

Every day, 44,000 people around the world are forced to flee their homes because of violence, persecution, human rights violations, natural disasters, or climate change. On this World Refugee Day, we’re putting the spotlight on three communities that grapple with those realities every day.  Rohingya refugees claiming their rights  Rubina was one of…

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Mobilizing for Women’s Rights!

May 29, 2019 By

Everyone has the right to decent work, a living wage, and equal pay. But obstacles in society and the global economy still prevent women and other marginalized people from fully enjoying these rights. That’s why we’re campaigning: Women Workers, Unite!  The Secretary General of ActionAid International, Adriano Campolina, was in…