Jennifer Jaquess

Executive Director

Jennifer Jaquess leads Red Mountain Theatre with a clear, forward-looking vision: to cultivate an arts organization that is innovative, community-rooted and nationally relevant. Since joining RMT in 2012—and stepping into the Executive Director role in 2024—she has helped RMT evolve from a beloved local institution into a major regional arts campus and creative hub.

Jennifer was an instrumental part of the conception and completion of RMT’s transformative $28 million capital campaign, which opened the theatre’s 60,000-square-foot Arts Campus in 2021. The project unified RMT’s artistic, educational, and administrative operations under one roof and earned national recognition, including a USITT Merit Award for design excellence.

A passionate advocate for the role of the arts in civic life, Jennifer was awarded a scholarship to attend Harvard Business Club of Birmingham’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program in 2025. She contributes to arts leadership at the national and statewide levels, serving as Vice President of the Board for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), on the Alabama Arts Alliance Board, and is a member of Rotary Club of Birmingham. She is also a 2023 graduate of Leadership Birmingham.

Before transitioning to nonprofit arts leadership, Jennifer built a distinguished career in publishing, advertising, and corporate training. As Group Publisher at Hoffman Media, she led the $5 million advertising division and secured major partnerships with brands such as Kraft, Unilever, IKEA, and General Mills. Earlier roles with Southern Progress Corporation included marketing leadership at Southern Living, Southern Living at HOME, and Southern Accents, as well as expanding the national domestic-violence initiative CUT IT OUT.

Jennifer holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from Samford University. She and her husband, Kevin, live in Birmingham and are the proud parents of two young adult children.