Jeannette has been an innovator at the nexus of gender equality and climate-related sectors for three decades, working with both public and private organizations and projects. She is founder and Executive Director of Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN), a global network to support capacity building for women’s leadership and gender integration in agriculture and climate related sectors. She led the creation of the W+ Standard to measure, quantify and monetize impacts of projects on women, through the use of a results-based financing approach, that is used around the world to drive new revenue for projects and local women's groups . Jeannette has a MSc in forestry from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Gender and Development from the University of East Anglia. She has expertise in certification and standards, monitoring and evaluation, training, research, gender and organizational analysis, policy advocacy and network building.

She lives in Kailua Kona, Hawai’i, from where she is developing a Climate Resilient & Agricultural Innovation Hub for Women Farmers of Hawai’i County to be located on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island. She is a member of the Ag Hui of Hawai'i and the Board of ThinkB.I.G.