STORY BY Rick Woodall
Banner photo by Brant Sanderlin; cover image courtesy of Macon Magazine featuring photo by Jessica Whitley
1. Pet a dolphin
2. Attend a murder mystery dinner
3. Visit a new country
4. See a Broadway play
5. Sleep in a treehouse
6. Cheer loudly at a soccer game
7. Go ziplining
8. Take a trip to Disney World
These are just a few of the experiences Jennifer Williams Bronner (05C) checked off her list of 40 things she wanted to accomplish before turning 40 last December.
She might also have checked the box for “appear on a magazine cover,” but those words were nowhere to be found, probably because the idea of such recognition just didn’t seem realistic to her.
That all changed the day Bronner took a call from Macon Magazine informing her that she would be joining four other difference makers under the age of 40 on the cover of the publication’s annual “Leadership Edition” in late summer 2023.
“It’s the wildest thing!” Bronner exclaimed, marveling at the fact that she would be considered for such acclaim by the former honorees responsible for selecting each year’s winners. “I didn’t even think there were enough people in Macon who knew who I was.”
That’s doubtful, as Macon is both Bronner’s hometown and the place she’s built a life with husband Joey, a local musician. It’s also home to her parents, both of whom retired from longtime jobs with Bibb County, her mother with the sheriff’s office, her father in the engineering department. They continue to live in the same house where they raised her.
However, this distinction – along with her inclusion on the NATIONAL “40 under 40” list of emerging leaders identified by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives – isn’t about Bronner’s longstanding place in the community but rather the work she does on its behalf as vice president of finance for the Greater Macon Chamber.
And while this daughter of Macon considers it “absolutely ridiculous” that she would be talked about in such lofty terms, Greater Macon Chamber President and CEO Jessica Walden has a very different perspective.
“The Greater Macon Chamber has been Jennifer’s first and only career since graduating Berry College and earning her MBA,” Walden praised. “She is dedicated to Macon, and Macon is better because of it. She is a cornerstone to many small businesses in our region and has navigated our chamber through nearly two decades of challenges and transitions.
“Many on our board will agree – and credit – Jennifer’s financial instinct, care and diligence to steering our organization through times of scarcity and abundance.”
Doing her part
As a teenager working in fast food and retail jobs, Bronner yearned to understand “what made businesses successful and how people generated income.” Today, she gets daily lessons in that regard thanks to a career that brings her into regular contact with local businesses of all types, from small startups to major corporations.
Her responsibilities at the chamber are significant, covering every aspect of accounting and finance for the 163-year-old organization, including oversight of human resources and building operations. Duties run the gamut from highly strategic forecasting and planning for the chamber’s $1.7 million annual budget to more mundane tasks such as reconciling petty cash and making deposits, just as she once did as a student financial manager for the Oak Hill Gift Shop.
“Some things don’t change,” she said with a laugh.
While enjoying the challenges posed by her accounting work, Bronner is equally motivated by the opportunities her role affords for one-on-one interaction with chamber members and other representatives of the Macon business community. Tapping into the same interpersonal skills that served her so well as a member of Berry’s Krannert Center Activities Board, she takes great satisfaction in facilitating connections that enable businesses to grow and flourish, even in difficult times.
As one example, she recalled a local brewer who reached out to the chamber during the COVID-19 pandemic to say his facility had the capability to make sanitizer. Enter Bronner and team, who were able to connect his business with local hospitals in desperate need. During that same period, she assisted a company that specialized in manufacturing shoe covers in sustaining its operation by pivoting to producing masks and other protective gear instead.
“Those are some of the things that I can look back on with pride,” she related. “It was cool to be able to help a business remain profitable while at the same time fulfilling a community need.”
Bronner’s pride in the Central Georgia city perched on the banks of the Ocmulgee River some 80 miles southeast of Atlanta is evident when talking about Macon’s vibrant downtown, deep-rooted music scene, economic expansion in areas such as health care, and a diversifying population now more than 150,000 strong.
She’s also excited by chamber-supported efforts to emphasize quality of life and workforce development as drivers of continued growth for the region, stating, “Macon is becoming one of those places that people can think of the place before they think of the job.”
To Berry and back
The teenager who stood teary eyed on the side of Opportunity Drive watching her parents’ Toyota 4Runner recede in the distance on a Sunday evening in late-summer 2001 never envisioned that the path she was starting would lead back home.
It’s not that she didn’t like Macon – far from it. She just thought life would lead somewhere else.
“Growing up in Macon was awesome for me,” Bronner declared, recalling participation in her school orchestra and chorus as well as volunteer service in the community, sharing one amusing memory of hammering nails into a roof at a Habitat for Humanity exhibit at the state fair while friends walked by on their way to the Ferris wheel. “I’ve had great experiences in Macon.”
The same was true at Berry, where Bronner helped establish the “In His Name” gospel choir, sharpened her career focus as an accounting major in the Campbell School of Business and served fellow students through participation in KCAB. She also connected deeply with the late Rev. Dr. Clarice Ford, then-associate dean of multicultural student affairs, and Pamela Bissonnette, who remains a spiritual mentor to this day.
Relevant experience gained through accounting-related positions at Oak Hill and Harbin Clinic complemented her classroom studies, while other important lessons – not the least of which was how to bake homemade rolls and other treats – were learned through a long-running job in Berry food service.
“I never in my life thought that I’d be making dinner rolls and pastries from scratch in college,” she said. “There was nothing better than taking hot rolls fresh out of the oven and getting to serve them to my friends. It was amazing!”
Bronner graduated with education, experience and a wealth of great memories. What she didn’t have was a job, at least not at first, so home she went. The next spring, she got her start at the chamber as an accounting clerk, thinking the role was more of a means to an end than the end itself. She explained: “I thought this was going to be that job that got me the experience that other jobs were saying I needed, and then I was going to move on to the next thing.”
Turns out the next steps were up, not out, with subsequent promotions bringing growth in responsibility and stature while offering fresh opportunities to serve her organization and hometown.
After 18 years, Bronner can point with pride to her leadership role in gaining statewide accreditation for the chamber, among other accomplishments, but the answer to why she’s stayed in Macon to this point in her career transcends individual achievement or recognition. Family is a primary reason; another is the sense of satisfaction she feels investing so much of herself in the place she calls home.
“Right now, I choose to stay in Macon because I know I’m playing a part, no matter how small, in making Macon better for the next generation,” she stated. “As a Macon native, my commitment to creating opportunities for people to develop professionally and personally has been fueled not only through my work, but also by the countless people I meet daily.”
Now that’s motivation worthy of a magazine cover.
