Meet the Founder

Drawing on her own childhood trauma experienced from her father’s high profile incarceration for 12 years, the faith and musical singer-songwriter background which both healed her and brought redemption to her father, and a Bachelors Degree in Social Work from The University of San Diego, Jeni’s vision for The Beat of Life began with a simple idea: that perhaps music is more than just an awesome form of entertainment.  Perhaps it possesses such extraordinary power to transform our suffering and toughest trials that it has the ability to set lives on an entirely new trajectory. Perhaps it’s even possible that… Music Can Save A Life.  

This became the tagline of The Beat of Life and quickly gained support from scores of Nashville’s professional and hit songwriters/artists who testified to the same sentiment: that music had been a type of saving grace for them, too… and that wanted to help The Beat of Life help those who needed that power the most. The organization quickly became perfectly positioned in the turbulent times we live in today. 

The Beat of Life’s enormous and groundbreaking success of its programs led to not only demand for its expansion across the US, but also to both local and national media attention – from radio, TV, magazine cover stories and digital print – all who sought not only to cover The Beat of Life but also Jeni’s powerful backstory behind it all.  Such massive exposure also gave rise to requests for speaking engagements at industry conventions both in the music and human service worlds to share that story and the redemptive work of The Beat of Life that was born from it. 

Jeni is now in the process of writing her debut book, “Redemption Song: From Our Greatest Adversities to Our Greatest Hits” to tell that story alongside the songwriters, inmates, youth, and those battling addiction, mental illness, and more – with the hope that it might help inspire others to transform their own greatest adversities into their greatest hits.