Jennifer (Smith) O’Brian, BSME ’12, doesn’t wait for positive change to happen, she makes it happen. In her words, she’s a “live loud, be bold, love life” type of person.
Her optimism, service, and impressive achievements as a young engineer inspired Ohio Northern University to award Jennifer the 2024 William L. Robinson Young Alumni Award.
The award recognizes alumni who graduated within the last 15 years and who demonstrate passion and loyalty toward their profession, community, and alma mater.
Just 12 years after graduating from ONU, Jennifer is the director of innovation with the North American building Products division of Worthington Enterprises, Inc., a global diversified metals manufacturing company in Columbus, Ohio. She calls her team of eight a “power squad with high cognitive diversity” and a “yes-and” team whose mission is to “move the needle forward.”
In five markets—heating and cooking, cooling, construction, water, and specialty—Jennifer leads her team in envisioning next-generation innovations to help companies advance their products and services. Her ultimate goal? Improve lives and keep American manufacturing competitive.
“If there’s a pain point or challenge—let’s learn more. If we learn there is significant value to solve, let’s dive in. If it was easy, it would have been done already. We are tackling things that may be three to five years out, but will make an impact.”
That drive to make an impact—in her career and life— is part of Jennifer’s DNA. Her parents nurtured it throughout her childhood, and then her ONU experience accelerated it.
A “woman with many passions,” Jennifer honed in on mechanical engineering because she excelled at math and science and two of her uncles were engineers. She admits she knew little about the profession in high school. “I don’t think I could even spell engineer!” she laughed.
When deciding between attending ONU or Carnegie Mellon, she noticed a difference in how people interacted with one another on the campuses. She valued genuine relationships and saw that she could easily build those connections at Northern.
At ONU, she played sports, participated in a co-op at Marathon, went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and joined a team of engineering and business students who developed and pitched a new product—a mobility cane for Jennifer’s uncle who had lost his vision. These high-impact experiences instilled her with purpose and confidence.
“When you surround yourself with hardworking, authentic people who have a caring mentality—not just faculty and staff, but peers too,” it helps you “develop as a person,” she explained. “It built my character.”
Her ONU engineering professors also taught her how to problem solve.
“I learned how to break massive problems down and take a thoughtful, logical approach.”
This enabled her to breeze through her master’s degree program in mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University.
And now, she solves complex problems every day, leading to innovations such as Worthington’s SmartLid® which allows companies to remotely monitor propone tanks—increasing safety and saving time and money.
Jennifer launched her career at Battelle, the largest independent non-profit applied science and technology company in the world, then moved to Worthington, where she’s helping to build the company’s innovation sector and expand the diversity of the workforce.
“There’s a mind-shift occurring and I’m proud to be adding to that story (at Worthington).”
Outside of work, Jennifer teams up with her husband, Mike, to drive change for good. Mike’s personality is similar to Jennifer’s. Their close friends have a running joke that she and Mike will come up with 100 big ideas before acting on one.
Education is one big thing they’ve continued to stay engaged with. They strongly believe “education is one of the best investments you can make.”
Jennifer and her team have sponsored seven ONU capstone projects through her employer, and Jennifer serves on the College of Engineering Advisory Board. She and Mike hosted an ONU engineering student for over a year at their home while he completed a co-op in Columbus. They also established the Jennifer Smith O’Brian and Michael O’Brian Scholarship to Support Engineers at ONU.
Adoption and cancer research are also important to their family. They actively fundraise in the Pelotonia community in honor of Jennifer’s ONU roommate who is a two-time cancer survivor.
And while Jennifer is honored to be named a Distinguished Young Alumni at ONU, she’s not driven by accolades.
“If I’m able to give back, to help pave the way forward for future generations, to make the world a better place,” she says, “that’s where I want to put my energy, that’s what I’m passionate about.”