Jo Ann Jenkins is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AARP.  She also serves as President of AARP Foundation, AARP’s affiliated charity. As Chief Operating Officer she is responsible for developing an enterprise-wide strategy that includes defining and facilitating operational priorities, as well as maximizing the organization’s mission. Since joining AARP as President of AARP Foundation in 2010, she has revitalized the Foundation and enhanced its work in assisting more than 5 million older vulnerable, low-income people each year with issues of hunger, inadequate housing, income and isolation.

Jo Ann came to AARP Foundation from the Library of Congress, where she was Chief Operating Officer since 2007, responsible for managing all day-to-day operations, a 4,000-person staff and a $600 million budget.  She developed and directed nine National Book Festivals and the Library of Congress Experience, the largest and most complex program in its 210-year history.

Under her leadership, the Foundation has enhanced the effectiveness of its programs and services and increased public awareness of AARP Foundation’s role in spotlighting and addressing the needs of vulnerable Americans age 50 and older. She is currently on the Boards of Directors of Living Cities and the Congressional Hunger Center.  Jo Ann was a delegate and founding fellow to the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program and a 1999 graduate of Leadership America.  She is a Malcolm Baldrige Fellow (2013). Read her columns below and follow her on Twitter at @JoAnn_Jenkins.