Jennifer James Speaker & Booking Information

Dr. James is a specialist in the areas of cultural change, diversity and marketing intelligence.

Jennifer regularly receives standing ovations and is described by clients, ranging from Georgia-Pacific, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and the national Association of School Boards, as "inspiring, incredible, thought-provoking, innovative, humorous, energizing, empowering, just brilliant" and "the best speaker I have ever heard." .

She is a published author of seven books, which include Windows, Success Is The Quality Of Your Journey, and Thinking in the Future Tense.  She has written more than 50 academic articles and wrote a newspaper column for the Seattle Times for 18 years.  Jennifer has filmed two PBS specials titled, "Thinking in the Future Tense" and "A Workout for the Mind." She is currently writing a book, Cultural Intelligence for Harvard Business Press.
   
Dr. James earned her Master's Degree in history and psychology and her Doctorate in cultural anthropology.  Before entering the public arena, she was a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington Medical School for twelve years.

She has been an N.I.M.H. Fellow, served on research review committees and on the editorial board of academic journals. Jennifer has received many honors including excellence in journalism awards, an International Film Festival gold medal, a Cindy Award for special achievement and was Billboard Radio Personality of the Year.

She is the founder of the Committee for Children a nonprofit organization that develops curriculums for the protection of children and the development of alternatives to violence. These curriculums, "Talking About Touching, Second Step" and "Steps To Respect" are now in taught in every state and in 37 other countries.

She delivered the Spokesman Review on horseback throughout her farming community. She graduated from West Valley High School in 1960 and in that year won both the Science Fair and the Betty Crocker Homemaker of the Year Award.

She left Spokane to attend Washington State University. Her first major was history. Her master's degree was in History and Anthropology. She left Pullman in 1966 and taught at Chico State University (CA). In 1968 she became a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Washington in Seattle where she has lived ever since.

Jennifer received her doctorate in 1972. Her dissertation was a study of the language (and the thought processes revealed by that language) of street prostitutes in Seattle. Her research specialties were "culture and illness" and "adaptive strategies". She wanted to understand how belief systems make people sick and how and why some people are so much more successful at change than others. She was professor at the University of Washington Medical School from 1972 until 1982.

The gradual movement from the study of street people (research grants to study prostitutes, drug addicts, female offenders and prisoners, juveniles, runaways, etc) to working with corporate executives was not as odd as it sounds. Hustlers are hustlers! The ability to think on the edge of your culture can create a deviant or a visionary.

She left the University as a full time faculty member in 1982 because of her interest in the real world. She started one of the first talk radio programs in the Pacific Northwest and was "Billboard Personality of the Year" in 1980.

Her radio program became number one in a highly competitive market. She began a column in 1981 for the Seattle Times that was a top rated feature for 18 years. Jennifer did television commentary for seven years until her lecture business expanded to the point that she had to leave the fixed schedule of radio and television. She now lectures and provides seminars around the world.

Jennifer lives in a technological cottage on Puget Sound. She raises koi in the water gardens that surround her home.