Jen Dotson

Jen Dotson
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Jen Dotson
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Jen Dotson

Executive Director, Alive Arts Media; Creative Director, Alive Magazine
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Jen Dotson, creative director, loves to barter voice lessons with friends for things like banana bread and lindie-hop lessons, enjoys connecting friends who ought also be friends, and particularly appreciates miscellaneous joys in life including carwashes, saunas, and--whenever possible--cooking over campfires.

Comfortably Uncomfortable by Lauren Melcher & Jen Dotson
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by Lauren Melcher & Jen Dotson
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With our feet in both the worlds of non-profit organizations and publishing and design, there are challenges - and rewards - that Jen and I could never imagine.
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- Jen Dotson, Creative Director, Alive Arts Media

by Lauren Melcher & Jen Dotson
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With our feet in both the worlds of non-profit organizations and publishing and design, there are challenges - and rewards - that Jen and I could never imagine.
...
- Jen Dotson, Creative Director, Alive Arts Media

Jen Dotson
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Jen Dotson
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Jen Dotson

Executive Director
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Jen Dotson, executive director, is fairly certain that life is best viewed through a lens of imagination. As such, she lives in a world where playgrounds are meant for adults and cartwheels are a commonplace occurrence on city streets. She takes her greatest inspiration from her 91-year-old grandmother who taught her that the most effective way to get a new perspective on life is to climb a tree.

Jen Dotson, a fellow St. Olaf graduate, saw potential and decided to help.

In the beginning, she said a lot of spare time was spent working on the endeavor.

"It was a total process of discovery," said Dotson, the magazine's creative director.

Through mostly word-of-mouth, the magazine has grown. Now 1,000 copies are printed in-house each issue and distributed to bookstores, churches, businesses and individuals.

In May, the Web site underwent a redesign. This redesign, Dotson said, allows the site to be updated more frequently, which readers enjoy, and gives it a cutting edge look and feel. On average, the site receives between 3,000 and 5,000 hits per month.

Since Alive Magazine's slogan is "by young women, for young women," the contributing writers and artists are young women between the ages of 13 and 25. Yet, the magazine does have a department that allows young men to weigh in with their opinions.

"The content is always new, fresh and relevant," Dotson said. "It's all original writing by young women (25 years old and younger)."

Dotson said that even though the magazine excludes those that are older than 25, their voices are still important and there is a place for them to be heard.
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"They're taking the magazine places I could never do myself," Scheiwe said of Dotson and Lauren Melcher, the managing editor.

by Lauren Melcher & Jen Dotson
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With our feet in both the worlds of non-profit organizations and publishing and design, there are challenges - and rewards - that Jen and I could never imagine.
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- Jen Dotson, Creative Director, Alive Arts Media

Published September 16, 2007. All rights reserved.

Cover letters may be addressed to Jennifer Dotson, Executive Director.

Jennifer Dotson, Executive Director

Jennifer Dotson, Co-Founder & Executive Director, is a social entrepreneur dedicated to transforming the media culture surrounding young women. Alive Arts Media, Inc., is a non-profit organization that exists to empower young women in their creative, educational, and professional pursuits. Utilizing mentorship at every level of its business model, AAM provides pre-professional training to young women through a high-level internship program, challenges media's depiction of women through Picturing Everyday Beauty: a project to add insight to the viewfinder, and showcases the stories and artwork of real women across the globe in the publication of Alive Magazine.

With degrees from St. Olaf College in Music and Communication of Faith, Ms. Dotson honed her skills for entrepreneurship through the creation of the latter degree, an interdepartmental course sequence through the Center for Integrative Studies. Since her volunteer work with AAM began in 2004, Ms. Dotson has completed a certificate program in non-profit management through Hamline University (completed in 2007).

After re-crafting Alive's business plan to reflect an enterprising nonprofit structure, she transitioned to full-time work in May of 2007 as the first paid staff member of Alive Arts Media. Under her leadership, the organization nearly doubled its annual budget and expanded in Spring of 2008 to a larger office located in NE Minneapolis with triple the staffing capability for their internship program, increased production to a bi-monthly schedule, and over quintupled readership in the last year.

Her inspiration for Alive Arts Media springs from nearly a decade of experience in the arts and nonprofit work. Her experience working with girls ranges from coaching high school volleyball to coordinating college mentorship programs, camp counseling to career counseling. An avid volleyball and tennis player, outdoors enthusiast and marathon runner, Ms. Dotson funnels her ambition into helping other young women realize their full potential.

Ms. Dotson shares her experience with companies in various industries as an active consultant in the areas of social consciousness in marketing aimed at youth, intergenerational communication in the workplace, graphic design and corporate branding, and organizational development. A tireless advocate for social justice and the potential of girls and women, she speaks by invitation to diverse audiences on social change, media literacy & civic engagement, youth activism, and girls and women in leadership.

Ms. Dotson serves as co-chair of media and marketing

http://www.personism.com/2006/10/11/list-of-women-speakers-for-your-confere
nce/#comment-61730 Jennifer Dotson - Executive Director of Alive Magazine Lauren Melcher - Managing Editor of Alive Magazine Jennifer Dotson - Executive Director of Alive Magazine