“Childhood Tragedy Inspired My Passion For Education,” Says Jamaican Born Entrepreneur Jenniffer Brown

New York, New York - “I firmly believe that the challenges we experience in childhood can serve as the inspiration for us to do as much as we can to make the lives of others better. Because that is my story.”

President of the Westwood Old Girls' Association (WOGA) New York Chapter, Jenniffer Brown. (Photo courtesy of Anthony Legg)So says Entrepreneur, former Legal Administrator and current President of the Westwood Old Girls' Association (WOGA) New York Chapter, Jenniffer Brown.

A family tragedy at age nine while growing up in Jamaica led to Brown experiencing several difficult years through her adolescence while attending her highly respected alma mater, Westwood High School for Girls, located in Stewart Town in the parish of Trelawny. Yet she credits the experience of those years with inspiring her passion for education, which resulted in her reviving Westwood’s Alumnae Association in New York in 2016. As its President for the past nine years, she has made it her top priority to give new generations of  Westwood students the best possible academic foundation  and support to prepare them for their life’s journey.

“I found a way to turn lemons into lemonade at Westwood,” she says, “And now it is time to pay it forward.”

Brown transitioned from her position as Firm Administrator at the Manhattan law firm Weiner, Millo, Morgan and Bonanno in 2021 after over two decades service, advancing to spend an additional two years as Chief Administration Officer at another law firm specializing in the business of cannabis. She now runs her own event planning and leadership training company, JKL Productions, along with her partners Karlene Largie and Lesleyann Samuel.

But the difficult road to her life of achievement began in her early childhood in Petersfield, Westmoreland in Jamaica, where she was born Jenniffer Spence into a family of six.

At age nine, Jenniffer’s mother, Joyce Yvonne Spence, passed away after a long illness. It was her dying wish that her three daughters be educated at Westwood High School, founded in 1882 by Baptist Minister Reverend William Menzie Webb, with the aim of providing unsegregated education for girls.

“It was, and still remains, one of Jamaica and the Caribbean’s oldest and most respected high schools, consistently ranked among the  nation's top ten tertiary institutions in academic achievement," says Brown. “So at that time it was considered a major accomplishment to be a student there. Our list of alumnae includes Pan Africanist Amy Ashwood Garvey, first wife of Marcus Garvey, and Iris Collins, the first woman elected to Jamaica’s House of Representatives, among others. So my father, also grief stricken at the loss of his wife and with three daughters and a son to raise on his own, decided to honor her wishes. Westwood was predominantly a boarding school at the time- one of the first boarding schools in Jamaica- so for me it meant moving away from Westmoreland at the age of eleven, and it changed the trajectory of my entire life.”

Brown describes her years at Westwood as being extremely difficult, not because of the school itself but because of her own personal circumstances.

“My dad migrated to the US while I was there and then my older sister graduated before me also, which meant I didn’t have my closest friend there anymore.  Having her with me made the tough and lonely times bearable. My younger sister was also boarding at Westwood but she did not live with us, so I was closer to my older sister. Because we lived in Westmoreland, our family could not visit with us as often as the families of other children who were from Trelawny, or parishes nearby like St. Ann or St. James. So it was devastating to watch other students getting visitors and being picked up for a “home-Sunday” knowing that we’d be stuck on campus like nobody’s children. It was actually worse after my dad migrated, because any hope of someone probably popping up completely disappeared.”

Despite the sadness of those years, Brown excelled as a student, eventually graduating and also immigrating to the USA where she attended Pace University. She married her first love, Elorde "Lexy" Brown and raised three children of whom she is “extremely proud.”

Yet her relationship with her alma mater felt somehow incomplete.

“Very shortly after graduating, I came to appreciate how much Westwood prepared me for life. I was able to work with and lead all types of people. I was inclusive and empathetic long before those became buzz words and before diversity and inclusion became a highly paid career path. But I had never gone back and visited the school or been involved with it in any way after leaving. I started to feel that I wanted to give something back, but was so busy with my career and family for many years that I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Then in 2014, the answer arrived.”

In that year, a delegation of Westwood students and their teacher chaperone received an invitation to attend a conference at the United Nations in New York, and Brown and her husband had the “great privilege” of hosting them for a week. For Brown, it was an epiphany.

“That situation underscored the great need for someone- namely me- to re-start the New York chapter of the Westwood Old Girls Association to assist the school back in Jamaica. I was able to contextualize the distress I had experienced while there, with the knowledge that the education I received really played a crucial role in who I am today. From an altruistic perspective, it was now my responsibility to make the Westwood experience as comfortable and beneficial as I could for present and future generations. And so, with an exemplary Westwood education as my mission, my vision and my passion, I jumped in right away and have not looked back since.”

Since reviving the association and becoming President in 2016, Brown cites the cultivation of a solid relationship with Westwood’s principal in Jamaica, as well as reviving the name recognition and historic luster of the school as major achievements. Westwood’s membership in, and her own role on the board of New York’s Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (UJAA)- an umbrella organization of over sixty alumnae and community organizations  predominantly in Jamaica- has been instrumental in that success.

But according to Brown, there is still much more to be done.

“WOGA New York has been focusing on donating laptops to the school since COVID19 as well as erecting and equipping an AutoCAD (Computer-Aided Design) lab on campus. We have accomplished some of our goals, but we recently became aware of  the need for a second lab and better internet connectivity on the campus, among other issues. Resolving all this will come at a high price, thus the desire for sponsors, donors and compulsory fundraising. Growing the membership of our association also remains a challenge, but under our  newly adopted slogan Westwood Strong, we plan to go on an active membership drive in 2025 to reach out to as many alumni as possible and invite them to get involved.”

Brown is guided daily by a fundamental belief that keeps her focus sharp even when challenges arise.

“With all my heart, I believe that the greatest tool you can give to anyone is that of a good education. And for young women especially, in the world we currently inhabit, it is vital because once it’s yours it is the one thing that nobody can ever take away. It can literally set the course for your entire future. And that has never been more true than it is today.”

 For more information on joining WOGA New York contact 929-242-9156 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..