Meet Kristy Venne

A lifelong educator, community connector, and advocate for student success.

Why I Am Running for the Dublin School Board

My Purpose

I wake up each morning with a deep sense of purpose: to positively impact the lives of young people and ensure they are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and experiences needed to thrive and to contribute to a meaningful, sustainable future.

Since leaving my role in Dublin City Schools in 2024 to launch an education and workforce consulting company, I’ve been intentional about finding the right opportunity to meaningfully contribute my time and talents. I currently serve on the DCS Business Advisory Council and have served on the Visit Dublin and Dublin Education Boards. After volunteering with the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and exploring a variety of possible leadership opportunities, I believe serving on the Dublin City Schools Board of Education is the most impactful way I can give back and use my unique skills and expertise to benefit our community.

As a lifelong educator and former DCS building and district administrator, I bring deep knowledge of our district, from classrooms to the executive cabinet, along with strong, trusted relationships across the system and community. I’ve led innovative initiatives, helped shape our district’s strategic vision, and consistently championed student-centered approaches. I am committed to serving with integrity, insight, and a focus on what’s best for all students.

My Experience

Emerald Campus Director

In 2017, using Design Thinking and a collaborative student-centered approach, I led teams of students, staff and parents to turn the former four story Verizon call center office building into a modern learning facility. I served as the first principal of Emerald Campus and built the model to offer a variety of learning opportunities to meet the needs of students and today's world.

I was fortunate to get to build a culture from the ground up - together with an amazing team of teachers selected to teach at EC from the existing 3 high schools. I created an ecosystem supportive of establishing trusting relationships, identified and communicated norms of collaboration, designed a shared leadership model, and celebrated successes regularly. Learning with teachers through innovative approaches, I modeled the courage to fail and the importance of our students failing forward, too. I collaborated with numerous teams and external community partners to create or evolve EC’s most cherished programs such as Aviation Academy, Biomed Academy,Young Professionals Academy, IT Academy, Entrepreneur Academy, and the Dublin Teacher Academy.

Emerald Campus has flourished, with enrollment going from 800 the first year to 1500 consistently since. I began the EC Student Ambassador program that welcomes and supports students still today, 8 years later. I bring the same energy and approach to my campaign now, with nine amazing current and former DCS students, across all three high schools, Tolles, Emerald Campus, Columbus State, and OSU Academy, leading all aspects of our campaign.

District Administrator

One of my most important contributions in DCS as the k-12 Career Education Coordinator was beginning the shift from the “college for all” mindset to the “4 E’s: The Many Pathways to Success.” Deeply passionate about promoting career-readiness and opportunities beyond the classroom, I helped bring SchooLinks and YouScience to DCS to help students discover their purpose, strengths, what the world needs, and what careers they may excel in. In addition, during the pandemic, I established District-wide Esports and now all three high schools have state championship teams. Most recently, as Director of Community Engagement, Partnerships, and Planning, I served as a connector to all facets of our community and managed the superintendent's seven advisory councils. I enjoyed co-authoring the district’s Strategic Plan focused on preparing all students for success. I also played a key role in the victorious 2023 levy campaign as the superintendent’s designee, ensuring continuation of essential funds.

More About Kristy

Life in Dublin

Kristy has been married for 25 years to her high school sweetheart, David Venne. They have two children attending Coffman and two great danes that she adores! She is open to learning anything new, and is currently obsessed with native plant gardening, fitness, and healthy meal prep. Kristy enjoys walking around Dublin, kayaking, rock hounding (collecting fossils), yoga, podcasts, spending time with family and friends (and dogs!), birding, reading, and gardening. She cares deeply about experiential learning, student agency, empowerment, and helping people find their purpose (Ikigai).

High School Assistant Principal

My leadership has always put students first. While a teacher and then high school administrator in New Albany (2013-2017), I co-created the “House” program to increase belonging and student leadership. The program divided 1400 students into 8 houses, each named and designed by the students. Through intra-house monthly friendly competitions and consistent student mentorship over all 4 years of a students’ experience, positive culture increased. While serving as an AP at Jerome High School, I oversaw 55+ student clubs, Special Education, Instruction, and Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS).

CEO/Founder of Jade Strategies

In 2024, I founded Jade Strategies, a Classroom-to-Career Education and Workforce Consulting company: "We build partnerships, programs, and pathways to connect k-12 schools, higher education, and businesses to help people discover their purpose and create a sustainable future filling workforce needs."

The Classroom-to-Career approach includes developing partnerships and programming to maximize outcomes for all involved. It begins with a human-centered, collaborative, design-thinking process to holistically tackle challenges and turn them into opportunities. Our team at Jade Strategies works with key stakeholders to create custom plans, programs, professional development, pathways and more based on an organization's unique needs, resources, and goals.

Some of our major clients include Reynoldsburg City Schools, Ohio Department of Education & Workforce, Educational Service Center of Central Ohio, National Retail Federation Foundation, Ohio Society of CPAs, and Learning InspirED. Learn more at https://www.classroom-to-career.com/