Jennifer (Jen) Patel is the Associate Director of Student Strengths Coaching at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. In this role, Jen works with partners throughout George Mason University on the Student Strengths Coaching Program. Funded by the Clifton Foundation, this program prepares cohorts of student strength coaches in the fundamentals of strengths, well-being, and professional coaching to help their peers recognize and develop their strengths through coaching engagements. She also supports faculty and staff development through oversight of the Mason Strengths Academy.
Jen has over 25 years of experience working in Fortune 50 companies, holding a variety of leadership and technical roles in the cybersecurity field. Although technical by training, her passion is working with people and thus pivoted to leadership coaching in 2023. Jen strives to offer a combination of empathy, experience, and systems thinking in all aspects of her work.
Jen holds a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Science/Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an International Coach Federation (ICF) ACC-Accredited coach and has additional certifications in High Performance Mindset Coaching, Executive Coaching, and the Genos Emotional Intelligence Assessment.