As NBOA’s chief learning officer, Jennifer Osland Hillen, CPA, CGMA, serves as a strategic partner to the president and CEO and leads the staff team charged with delivering the association’s broad and diverse portfolio of programs, industry guidance, and resources. This work reaches members and constituents across multiple delivery channels, including many partnerships with other associations serving independent schools. Hillen serves the NBOA Board of Directors’ Governance Committee and leads the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, in addition to serving as a subject-matter expert on independent school finance, operations and governance. She also serves on the American Society of Association Executives’ Professional Development Advisory Council and has served on the teaching faculty for the Master of Education in Independent School Leadership program at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Leadership, Policy & Organizations at Peabody College of Education and Human Development.
Hillen worked in assurance and advisory services for international “Big 4” public accounting firm, Ernst & Young, before joining Harpeth Hall School, where she served as a business officer for nearly a decade. She has served on the board of directors of several nonprofits, including her current role as treasurer of Renewal House, as well as past service to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, LEAD Public Schools, and WO Smith Music School. She recently served as president of the Junior League of Nashville, a 1,600-member organization of women volunteers, the 15th largest in the world. Hillen is honored to be a member of Leadership Nashville and past honoree of the Nashville ATHENA Awards and 30 Under 30.
Hillen wrote and illustrated the bestselling book, “GOODNIGHT, NASHVILLE,” and gives a portion of each sale to a local nonprofit. She earned bachelor’s degrees in accounting, Spanish and business from Birmingham-Southern College and studied abroad at Oxford University in England.
