Jenny spent her childhood in the woods of Tennessee with no running water and no electricity. What her upbringing lacked in television or convenient showers, it made up in opportunities to develop her imagination. With no formal education in advertising, she’s worked her way from proofreader to group creative director, coming up with ideas for brands like Virgin Mobile, Samsung, Travelocity and Sherwin-Williams. She’s gotten props from Cannes, the One Show, D&AD, FWA, the Webby Awards, the MIXX awards and Business Insider, who named her one of the 25 most creative people in advertising. Her work has been featured on/in/by CNN, NPR, Mashable, Wired, Creativity, Communication Arts, Archive, Reddit and her parents’ refrigerator door. Last summer, Jenny was named to the 4A’s “Top 100 Who Make Advertising Great.” Last fall, she was featured in the New York Times for “Payback,” her online game that teaches millennials about college debt.

All this is nice but Jenny will tell you her greatest achievement was making a game out of surviving homelessness. That’s right. An online game called SPENT that’s an immersive experience into what it’s like to live on the edge of poverty and homelessness. SPENT challenges you to manage your money, raise a child and make it through the end of the month on minimum wage. Launched in 2011, SPENT has been played more than seven million times in 218 countries. Now a favorite in the social services communities and classrooms worldwide, the game is played over 7,000 times daily.