The winner of this year’s Emerging Leader Award from the College of Arts and Sciences says that her personal and professional passion boils down to one question: “How can I be salt and light?”

Katelyn Jackson Nnake (BA, journalism, 2006) boasts more than 16 years of leadership and communications experience with a focus on equity, diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility. She currently serves as head of DEI for Klaviyo, an emerging mar-tech platform. She is also an active member of the Delta Sigma Theta and serves as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Corporate Advisory Council. She explains that aforementioned metaphor is one of her key guiding principles.

 “How can I bring out the flavors for all of us to enjoy and how can I continue to guide and motivate, no matter how dark things get?”  That translates into equity and inclusion and corporate social responsibility, in my professional life.”

Jackson Nnake says she not only received a great education at Ohio State, where she graduated with a public affairs journalism degree from the School of Communication. She also learned many lessons in leadership and open-mindedness for her interactions with students of a diverse range of backgrounds and talents.

“While at Ohio State, I had so many opportunities that allowed me to make mistakes and to learn and to build up my leadership muscle in ways that I couldn’t imagine. In the moment, I was just doing things that excited me and fulfilled me, socially, and had a bit of impact, through service. As I think back on a lot of the qualities that are necessary in Corporate America today – like radical collaboration, seeking understanding of people and concepts – all of those things I honed here at Ohio State.”

Jackson Nnake says that many of her extracurricular activities – as a member of the Speaker’s Bureau, a host and producer on Black Horizons Radio, in a leadership role in her sorority, as a staff writer for The Lantern – would, in retrospect, pave the path for her professional career. She points to one role, in particular, as being particularly impactful: her time as a resident assistant.

“I didn’t know the type of skills that I was learning. It was always just, ‘There’s an opportunity for us to do something better, there’s an opportunity for us all to learn.’ But I learned crisis management, a lot of patience, but also being open to understanding how approach folks who might be different from you, but still come together with a commonality and move forward in building community.”

After graduating from Ohio State in 2006, Jackson Nnake would go on to earn her MBA from Xavier University. She also began to climb the ranks at the Coca-Cola Company, taking on roles of increasing responsibility in public affairs, corporate impact and communications. Her work in DEI also continued as Global Head of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) Partnerships at Twitter.

“There’s more that brings us together than ever separates us, if we take the time to gain understanding, if we are intentional. When I talk to my mentees, I always stress: be intentional. Be intentional about the community you keep, be intentional about those who might be left behind.”

Mentorship is also front-and-center in Jackson Nnake’s priorities. She has twice served as a mentor for Washington Academic Internship Program at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs and will teach her first policy salon this fall. She impresses upon her mentees the importance of sharing your gifts with those who could benefit from your talents and experience.

“You should never have a talent or a skill that you’re not sharing with someone else. You should always be doing and be sharing and be giving. And if I’ve lived an experience, and I’ve lived the ups and many downs, it’s my responsibility to ensure that those who come after me don’t have to. It’s not enough for me to climb the ladder if I’m not pulling those up, behind me.”

Jackson Nnake said she was surprised to learn that she had been selected to receive the Emerging Leader Award from the College of Arts and Sciences but, once she got over the shock, she says she’s choosing to use it as an opportunity to share her message. “I am practicing an attitude of gratitude. What is this season, this time trying to teach me? What am I being used as a vessel for? Is it to share a message that might resound with someone, that could change their perspective on things or might provide them with encouragement?”

The College of Arts and Sciences congratulates Katelyn Jackson Nnake and all of the recipients of the 2022-2023 Arts and Sciences Alumni Awards. The five recipients will be presented with their awards on Friday, April 14.