Meet Jennifer Downs
Jennifer Downs came of age in the tumultuous “baby boom” after World War II. Many in her generation challenged the status quo and initiated movements questioning long-standing assumptions about race, gender, food, war, and peace. Now 69, Downs is again challenging common perceptions. Instead of sinking into the faded recliners of old age, Downs argues that our elder years are when we should rise to the occasion and embrace new challenges even as we also pause and contemplate. She pulls from her multi-faceted training in both western and eastern medicine to empower elders how to savor their new perspectives on life, a process she is currently immersed in herself.
Jennifer is a gifted and in-demand speaker on acupuncture, integrative health, and the elder years. Jennifer founded Pivot Point Projects where she hosts in-person and virtual workshops for people in later life, focused on navigating and thriving despite new challenges.
After working as a registered nurse for several years, Jennifer discovered the healing power of Chinese medicine and became an acupuncturist, which she has now practiced for 40 years. As a traditional Chinese acupuncturist, Jennifer brings diagnostic skill and insight about people to everything she does. As she embarks on the second half of her life, Jennifer has developed a newfound appreciation for the unique challenges and opportunities that present in the later decades and has discovered that people are hungry for her perspective.
Jennifer is a mother and grandmother who also provides support for her 96-year-old father. Having a first child at 41 while already well established in a career gave her a welcome experience of motherhood. As an elder, she is exploring the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and other indigenous nations and their modeling of balanced male/female roles, as well as a reverence for all generations in the promotion of harmony. People over fifty in these times can come of age as elders, find joy in youth and all generations while they seek greater understanding of their own lives. Jennifer is immersed in this transformative process herself.
Jennifer’s zeal for life led her to co-found and run Be the Change Bmore, a grassroots initiative that provides a forum for thousands of people to learn about and take action on political and social issues that matter to them. In addition, she’s a founding board member of the Green Burial Association of Maryland (GBAM), a nonprofit that provides educational opportunities for people to learn about meaningful and ecologically sound ways to dispose of the body after death.
Combining her many talents and passions, Jennifer is currently writing Coming of Age as Elders: For the Love of Life and Liberty, which will provide a roadmap to the over-50 crowd on how they can rise to the occasion, embrace the challenges, and savor the view. You can read snippets in her blog.
Get in touch to book Jennifer for a speaking engagement.
“Tools and Tasks gave me a framework to examine my strengths and weaknesses, and this work has helped me make an important career transition.”
“Scientific theories about how we age nearly all accept, without question, the doctrine of youth’s perfection. They focus on decline and pay little heed to the steady emergence of new gifts and capacities in later years.
”