As a federal judge, Jennifer Coffman saw many defendants in front of her bench. One day she met a woman whose confidence was so low she couldn’t make eye contact. The probation officer recommended that this woman attend the New Opportunity School for Women.
Jennifer had never heard of NOSW, but she became a believer. When the woman came back to court after NOSW, she was a different person. “The transformation I saw in that defendant convinced me that this was a place that truly changes lives,” Jennifer says.
As the first woman to be appointed a federal judge in Kentucky, Jennifer was singled out for a life-changing opportunity. She sees NOSW as the same kind of golden opportunity for under-resourced women.
After she retired, Jennifer became a donor. She chooses to support NOSW because it offers women tools to change their own lives. “When you change a woman, you change a family,” she says. “I saw changes that people just couldn’t get anywhere else.”
Jennifer and her husband are intentional about their giving. “We want to give to agencies that really are out there to change lives and that do change lives,” she says. “And that’s what I see at the New Opportunity school for Women—an organization that makes a difference and that really can transform a woman into something that she didn’t know she could be.”
