Faculty

Profile

Jody Adams is an accomplished educator and professional with extensive experience in finance, nonprofit management, and strategic operations. She holds an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from The New School and a B.S. in Business Administration with a Marketing focus and an Economics minor from Penn State University.

Jody teaches with an emphasis on applying strategic, management, and financial principles to real-world challenges in design and social justice. Her teaching philosophy centers on demystifying business concepts to empower students as creatives and changemakers.

Jody launched her career on Wall Street, advancing to Vice President at Merrill Lynch, where she crafted and executed strategic plans for international investment banking operations. Her role encompassed aligning global markets with domestic frameworks, optimizing human capital, and fostering cross-entity collaboration to drive operational excellence.  Inspired by a passion for community development and empowerment, Jody transitioned from the corporate world to nonprofit and grassroots organizations, leveraging her expertise to drive meaningful social impact.

As Executive Director of Generation Change and President of the Montclair Baseball & Softball Club, Jody led initiatives to inspire youth leadership and foster growth through equitable programs. Her consulting for organizations like the Girls’ Leadership Camp and CoSAP in Ethiopia highlights her expertise in designing systems to assess and amplify program effectiveness.

More recently, Jody served as Director of Finance and Operations at Capri Technologies, where she oversaw finance, operations, and compliance for a financial literacy startup. Today, in addition to teaching, Jody remains actively engaged in her fields of practice. She serves on the Research Advisory Committee for The Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research, which promotes safer campus communities, and advises her sorority at Penn State.

Degrees Held

MS, The New School; BS, Pennsylvania State University; New School graduate teaching assistant 2017 to 2018; New School part-time faculty since 2022.