About

Principal

Jennifer Rose, Downtown Diva principal, served as executive director of Allston Village Main Streets, an urban revitalization program in Boston, from its founding in 1996 until 2007, and has worked with downtown organizations across the country. She developed the Main Street Database Template, a tool adopted by hundreds of downtown organizations. She has been a frequent speaker at national conferences, including the National Town Meeting on Main Street (National Main Street Center), the Urban Forum (LISC) and International Downtown Association meetings, on topics ranging from running a Taste festival to working in multicultural neighborhoods.

Jennifer's extensive background in non-profit administration and community organizing, as well as communications and marketing, serves as a valuable asset in her work with downtown programs, non-profits and small businesses. Her expertise also includes event-planning, fundraising and running a farmers' market. She received her B.A. in Communications and English from Simmons College and a Master's of Urban Affairs from Boston University. When not working to revitalize downtowns and small businesses, Jennifer is a poet and writer. She is the author of two books, The Old Direction of Heaven and Hometown for an Hour.

Jennifer is available for short- and long-term consulting, training and speaking engagements.

Associates

Kitty Kane of Dynamic Business Solutions has been building and developing FileMaker Pro databases since 1994. Her strengths are in assisting companies both large and small in organizing and streamlining business processes through consulting and deploying of FileMaker databases. Her past experience in advertising and marketing has given her a creative edge in building graphically pleasing, well-organized cross-platform databases. She believes building simple, easy-to-use interfaces accelerates the learning curve so that users can master the system in a fraction of the time.

Mike ZarinMike Zarin, M.Ed., is a Claris Partner and Claris FileMaker Certified Developer with more than 20 years’ experience as a FileMaker programmer. He holds a master’s degree from Lesley University and graduated summa cum laude from Haverford College with a degree in Physics. Mike is a member of the Boston-Area FileMaker Developers Association (BAFDA) and the MIT FileMaker Users Group (FMUG). He has been a featured speaker for both groups, as well as for Harvard University’s FileMaker user group (ABCD-FileMaker) and MacTech Magazine’s MacTech BootCamp conference.

What people say about Downtown Diva

+“Jennifer was a great consultant for board development and an excellent sounding board as I sort through organizational development challenges in the non-profit I lead. She made specific, valuable suggestions as well as provided the encouragement and neutral reality check so difficult for executive directors to find sometimes. Her energy and generosity in sharing her expertise is making a real difference in my organization.”
Mimi Graney, Union Square Main Streets, Somerville, Massachusetts
+“We are the largest BID in Los Angeles and engaged the ‘Downtown Diva’ to do a substantial upgrade of our extensive and complicated database. I found Jennifer to be extremely knowledgeable, providing invaluable expertise and guidance for our very specialized needs. She provided everything I could have hoped for and more. I would highly recommend her services.”
Suzanne Holley, Downtown Center BID, Los Angeles, California

+“Jennifer is a great resource and wonderful problem-solver. I explained a challenge I was facing and she guided me to the right tool to use and coached me effectively on the necessary modifications to meet my needs.”
Merril Prager, Jeff Awards Committee, Chicago, Illinois
+“During my time at TechSoup, I've easily worked with thousands of NTAP's (nonprofit technology assistance providers) around the world, but Jennifer Rose stands out in a special way for me due to her passion for helping nonprofits, seeing a direct and concrete way to make the world work better and never giving up until she sees that result happen in real time. Want to give her all public kudos since without her 'stick-to-it' spirit, the offer from FileMaker on TechSoup may not ever have occurred.”
Gayle Samuelson Carpentier, Chief Business Development Officer, TechSoup Global