Mission Mondays: Preservation Equals Collaboration

by Lorenzo Windrow, Associate Director of Development for the National Museum of African American Music

Jennifer Cohn Beugelmans is the definition of reliable.

We met in a small coffee shop. Immediately, I noticed strands of purple woven through her hair, her nails painted in bright, unapologetic colors (subtle reminders that creativity doesn’t disappear just because you work in finance). On either side of us are students studying, headphones in, laptops open. When I stepped away to grab water, I came back to find Jennifer already deep in conversation with them curious, smiling, fully present. That detail stayed with me.

She moved to Nashville in 2018 for work, having previously built her career in New York and San Francisco after growing up in Chicago – a city where African American culture was and continues to be prominent. Music was part of that environment. Her great uncle played in Count Basie’s band. Her brother is an indie hip-hop artist. Jazz, Opera, Hip-Hop, Americana… it was all fair game.

When she first visited the National Museum of African American Music, it was instant recognition.

“I knew this was something I wanted to support.”

Jennifer works in finance, but not in the way people often imagine. She crafts corporate narratives helping companies communicate their story to Wall Street. She understands that story shapes value. Story shapes belief. Story shapes the future. And that lens carries into how she gives.

“I’m an excellent gift giver,” she told me, smiling. “My gifts are responsive. I am listening. I’m picking up what you’re putting down.” There is something important in that. Her philanthropy is attentive.

Raised in a single-parent household after her parents divorced, Jennifer stepped early into responsibility. Today, she cares for her mother, who lives nearby and spends half the week with her. She serves as an advocate with CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) Nashville. She works full-time. She shows up for family. For years, she said, she believed her value was in what she did for others.

“I used to feel like that was my value. What I did for other people. But now I know just being is enough.”

This was an important perspective shift, as giving from obligation feels different than giving from wholeness.

Now, Jennifer gives from gratitude.

“I wake up with a song in my heart,” she said. Not metaphorically, but as a daily posture. When we spoke about cultural preservation, her tone didn’t sharpen or dramatize. It stayed grounded.

“There’s consumption of culture,” I asked her, “and then there’s preservation of culture. When did you decide to be part of the second?”

She traced it back to family. Grandparents. Great-grandparents. Stories. Migration. Courage. A grandmother who moved north with little education, but immense bravery.

“Preservation equals collaboration,” she said.

In a moment when parts of American history are being debated, reinterpreted, and in some cases quietly erased, she sees preservation as bridge-building. If we don’t preserve Black musical innovation at scale, she reflected, we don’t just lose history. We lose connection. We lose the ability to see ourselves in one another. We lose the thread that ties gospel to blues, blues to rock, rock to pop. We lose evidence of shared creation.

When I asked her what she hopes future generations feel walking through the museum, she didn’t hesitate: “Wonder,” she said. “How did they create this? How did they make beauty in those conditions?”

And what about the people who chose to build and support it?

“I hope they’re inspired,” she answered. “Do whatever you can do.”

That may be the quiet invitation in her story. Not everyone will sit on a board, craft corporate narratives, or travel the world. But everyone can decide what they are preserving. Everyone benefits from culture. The question is whether we will participate in sustaining it.

Mission Mondays exists to highlight the individuals who help make our mission possible not as distant benefactors, but as real people navigating family, work, responsibility, and gratitude. If Jennifer’s story resonates with you, if you believe preservation builds bridges, if you’ve experienced the power of Black music to shape identity and connection, consider what role you might play in ensuring that story continues.

Because institutions are built by people.

And sustained by them.

Lorenzo Windrow serves as Associate Director of Development at the National Museum of African American Music, where he manages an $8 million contributed income pipeline and leads transformative campaigns that sustain the museum’s mission of celebrating black music and culture. Read his bio here.

Mission Mondays is an initiative by The National Museum of African American Music to highlight the stories of the major donors who help make our mission possible. Want to be featured? Please contact marketing@nmaam.org. Inspired to support?