September 13, 2018

We are very pleased to welcome our new Project Coordinator, Jennifer Burns, to Epstein!

Jennifer comes to us from Ragnar Benson Construction, LLC. Prior to that, she worked at LendLease, also a construction firm, where she was on their multi-side division and tasked with the super important, world changing, Nobel Peace Prize worthy responsibility of coordinating 2000 Kentucky Fried Chicken remodels in roughly 3 years.

Shes from a small farming town about 30 miles outside of Springfield called Taylorville, IL population 10,000. As such, she definitely considers herself a small town, country girl at heart. Shes got the cowboy boots to prove it.

Jennifer attended Bradley University in Peoria (go Braves!) and graduated with a degree in Communications. You may not guess it from looking at her, but she was on the schools hip hop dance team and even got to dance for a completely packed arena when the school made it to the Sweet 16 during one of her college years!

While at Bradley, Jennifer also had a 2-year internship where she wrote articles and designed layouts for a magazine publishing group in Peoria.

Jennifer says she fell into this industry on accident. I made a promise to a friend on a whim that I would move to Chicago and she took me up on it. I moved here with graduation money, a waitressing gig and thats it. I was hired as a receptionist for a subcontractor (Rex Electric) and was promoted to estimating coordinator, where I fell in love with the industry. 11 years later and I still love it.

Her biggest passions are food and fitness. She loves to cook and find new ways to turn junk food into healthier options. Jennifer has also been coaching CrossFit, weightlifting and strongman (think Worlds Strongest Man competitions on Saturday afternoons on ESPN2) classes part-time for the past 4 years. Failed at resisting the urge to say, You go, girl!

Additionally, Jennifer jokes that she has the basic city girl interests going out with friends, going to the beach, trying new restaurants and, of course, wine. Dont forget throwing a pile of leaves in the air for the Instagram and making cookies with your KitchenAid. Weve all been there!

Welcome again, Jennifer, were excited to have you join the team!