Strategist. Community builder. Rooted in equity.

Jilian Palmer is a community engagement strategist working at the intersection of public health, faith, and community development. In her role as Alignment Cohort Associate, she she supports churches as they discern how their buildings, land, and relationships can become catalysts for community flourishing. Through asset-based community development teaching and training, she helps congregations move from listening to action.

Jilian brings more than a decade of experience designing community-centered strategies that strengthen neighborhoods through partnership. Her work begins with listening, convening stakeholders, mapping community assets, and creating spaces where local wisdom shapes sustainable solutions. Prior to joining New Chapter Ventures, she was a Thriving Communities Fellow at Duke Divinity School, where she co-led six-week community engagement initiatives on asset-mapping and stakeholder engagement to over seventy-five community members.

Prior to seminary studies, Jilian worked as a state public health director during COVID-19, expanding vaccine access to more than 10,500 people in marginalized communities. As a Community Engagement Director at a Charleston-area church,  she partnered with neighborhood leaders to launch food security, education, and family support initiatives that strengthened community connections and served thousands of households annually. Across every role, her work stays grounded in the conviction that communities should be co-creators of the solutions intended to serve them. 

Jilian holds a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School, where she served as Vice President of the Black Seminarians Union and earned certificates in Theology, Medicine & Culture and in Black Church Studies. She also holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Medical University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Clemson University.