CRF Appoints Jenifer Forbes as new Executive Director
The Cleveland Rowing Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce that Jenifer Forbes will be joining CRF as its Executive Director. Jen grew up in Baltimore City and began rowing in 2005 as a high school sophomore with the St. Paul’s School for Girls, where she earned 3 varsity letters in basketball, volleyball, and crew, and was recently added to the SPSG Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2022. As captain, athletic scholarship recipient, and Hall of Fame Inductee for the Northeastern Women's Rowing Team, Jen and her team won three CAA titles. She went on to earn a bronze medal and her first National Team unisuit at the 2011 U23 World Championships with her teammates in the Women’s 8+.
Prior to her return to elite sport in the summer of 2017, Jen spent 4 years recovering from a career-halting back injury she sustained while training for National Team aspirations at the Oklahoma City High Performance Center. Between 2013-2017 while rehabbing her back, developing her photography business, and teaching yoga, she coached Georgetown Women’s Rowing Team; Potomac Boat Club Masters and U-23 athletes; Baltimore Reach High Program Juniors; Craftsbury Outdoor Center Sculling Campers; and provided private coaching and collegiate counseling services for junior athletes.
Jen spent the last 5 years of her career training in rural Vermont as a professional athlete with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (GRP) where she traded her skills, community service, and environmental stewardship hours for access to all her training and racing needs. During her time with the GRP, she had the opportunity to row and race in four continents, during which time she was a twice-named National Team Member and two-time National Championship winner in the women's single and double sculls; competed in the 2021 Olympic trials in the single, double, quadruple sculls, and coxless pair; represented Team USA at the 2019 PanAmerican Games in the single; competed in three cross country ski marathons; expanded her love for endurance athletics by venturing into road and gravel cycling; and hiked all of Vermont’s 4,000 footers.
She has served as a cross country ski guide for VI athletes, fitness instructor and skills coach for athletes of all ages, backgrounds, and ability levels; a volunteer SCUBA Diver to remove and manage invasive aquatic plants from Great Hosmer Pond; a digital and physical media content creator for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and its supporting entities; a Select Board Member for the Town of Craftsbury Energy Committee; and as theUS Rowing Junior High Performance Female Athlete Representative.
Jen is a graduate of Northeastern University’s School of Environmental and Marine Science, holds certificates in Executive Business Education and Mycology plus Fermentation from the Tuck school of Business at Dartmouth and Sterling Colleges, respectively. Jen believes strongly in the power of competitive collaboration, lifelong sport, investing in people and the environment. Her personal and professional mantra is "leave it better than you found it". She will begin her role as Executive Director of the Cleveland Rowing Foundation on October 15, 2022.
1003 British Street, Cleveland, OH 44113 www.clevelandrows.org