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Meet Jene
Jené Liggins is the Founder and Principal Consultant of The Strategies Lab, LLC, based in Greater New Orleans. A systems thinker and strategist, she partners with leaders and organizations to transform ideas into actionable frameworks. Her work centers on human potential, and she loves providing clarity, structure, and guidance to take ideas from concept to completion. While she has supported various organizations and leaders, her work has been focused in the field of education.
Growing Up in a World of Learning
For Jené, education was not simply an environment but a living, breathing influence that shaped her earliest ambitions. Her parents’ dedication to their craft and to the children they served instilled in her a profound understanding of purpose, discipline, and care. Her mother, a kindergarten teacher and school leader for more than three decades, often referred to her students as “little people,” treating each with intentional respect and humanity.
“She found ways to use her love of creativity, design, and aesthetics through countless bulletin boards, costumes for school plays, and the songs she sang with her students each day,”
Her father, the penultimate of nine children, navigated his way through a rural area of Louisiana to earn multiple degrees in education and administration, eventually teaching math and mentoring students in life as much as academics. Together, her parents modeled a relentless work ethic and a commitment to detail, leaving a lasting imprint on Jené’s own purpose and values.
Jené’s upbringing was framed by curiosity and an appreciation for learning, which followed her through high school and into her collegiate studies at Loyola University New Orleans. Her first semester coincided with the shock of the September 11th attacks, a formative moment that expanded her perspective while she was learning to navigate life away from home. These early experiences in a world marked by uncertainty and transformation would foreshadow the adaptability that would define her career.
Searching for Her Path
After completing her undergraduate degree in Business Administration, Jené followed a familiar path to law school, although she had long known that traditional legal practice was not her calling. Just a few weeks into law school, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city she loved, placing the challenges of her legal studies alongside the immediate realities of civic recovery. Ultimately, she earned her JD and started her career in the Mayor’s Department of Policy with the City of New Orleans. She then undertook a judicial clerkship and transitioned to insurance defense litigation, all while grappling with the dissonance of a career that did not align with her values or aspirations.
It was a moment of clarity and intense emotion that catalyzed her transition from law to education. Jené remembers sitting at her desk, tears streaming, as she confronted the realization that she desperately wanted, and needed, to use her academic background in a different way.
“I was crying at my desk because of the cognitive dissonance I couldn’t quite describe; I felt out of place in the traditional practice of law, and I was desperately trying to figure out another professional pathway,”
A sudden layoff shortly thereafter coincided with her exploration of opportunities in education, leading her to a local school, where she began working part-time managing data and supporting testing preparation. Her innate curiosity, attention to detail, love of learning, and dedication to students in her community quickly established her as an invaluable contributor, and she eventually transitioned into a full-time operations role at the school.
This transition wasn’t easy. Many in the education sector struggled to understand her pivot from law, and she faced skepticism about whether her commitment would endure. Yet these experiences reinforced her understanding of the unique skills and perspective she brought to her work: a blend of analytical thinking, systems design, and an insatiable curiosity that drove her to ask why rather than simply accept surface-level answers.
Designing a Career of Purpose
Jené’s career evolved into roles of increasing responsibility with local and national organizations, including systemwide education policy, executive leadership, human resources, and talent development. Her approach to leadership has always been rooted in a belief that structures, systems, and processes empower individuals to reach their full potential. She describes her work as giving leaders and organizations the frameworks necessary to realize ambitious visions while ensuring operational effectiveness.
In 2024, she formalized this vision by founding The Strategies Lab, LLC, an organization designed to help leaders and institutions translate their big ideas into practical, achievable plans. She had always wanted to stand proudly at the helm of her own organization. So, when her role in human resources was eliminated in 2025, she refined the materials she had already created for her consulting practice to launch her organization. The response was immediate, with inquiries and meaningful collaborations beginning within a week.
Today, her work spans strategic planning, project management, change management, operations, systems design, and individual career advising. At its core, her mission is simple: to provide clarity and structure so that big ideas can flourish, supported by processes that respect both the vision and the people bringing it to life.
Guiding Values
Jené’s work is guided by discipline, curiosity, and alignment. Discipline, she says, has carried her through personal and professional challenges, enabling her to persist even when circumstances seemed insurmountable. Curiosity fuels her approach to problem-solving and leadership, while alignment ensures that her work reflects her core values with authenticity. Her leadership philosophy is grounded in the belief that success is not measured solely by material gains, but more so by the ability to support others in achieving their goals.
“I simply want my legacy to be, ‘Because of Jené’s presence and her work, I was able to achieve my goals and realize my vision.’ This is fulfilling, and the more I lean into my calling authentically, the more stable I feel about my financial health,” .
This blend of personal values and professional expertise allows her to work across diverse organizations and individual careers, creating structures that enable people to thrive. She delights in hearing clients acknowledge that her guidance has made tangible differences in their ability to implement their visions, demonstrating the often invisible, but crucial, impact of thoughtful systems design.
Looking Ahead
Jené’s vision extends beyond immediate consulting engagements. She hopes to expand The Strategies Lab, LLC to touch more fields and sectors, providing space for people with skills, ideas, and passion to realize their potential. She wants to continue moving the needle where education intersects with economic development, remaining attuned to community needs, workforce demands, and evolving political realities. Her commitment to servant leadership and authenticity remains central, ensuring that every initiative she undertakes is anchored in both integrity and impact.
In addition, Jené is mindful of the broader lesson her journey embodies: each person has unique skills and perspectives, and fulfilling one’s potential often requires patience, courage, and faith in one’s own abilities. Her career exemplifies how resilience, curiosity, and deliberate alignment can transform uncertainty into opportunity, and ideas into lasting impact.
The Heart of Her Work
Ultimately, Jené Liggins’ story is one of blending intellect, discipline, and empathy into actionable frameworks that uplift others. Her journey from law to education, through leadership roles, and into independent consultancy demonstrates a rare capacity to translate vision into structured, meaningful outcomes. It is a career defined not by accolades or titles, but by the tangible difference she enables for individuals, teams, and the broader communities they serve. By trusting in her own values, investing in careful planning, and committing to uplifting others, Jené has built a life and career that reflects both her potential and her purpose.
Her story reminds us that meaningful leadership is not always linear, nor does it follow conventional paths. It is shaped by curiosity, guided by values, and realized through the care and structure we bring to both our own work and the lives of those we touch.
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