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 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
Mimi Graney, Union Square Main Streets, Somerville, Massachusetts
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
Gayle Samuelson Carpentier, Chief Business Development Officer, TechSoup Global