Jenni Lilledahl graduated Summa Cum Laude from Augsburg College in 1987 with a degree in Communications and Public Relations and a minor in theatre. An ambitious Minnesota native, she got right to work. After eight years of work in the field of public relations, she’d had enough and decided to leap off the corporate ladder to pursue her passion, which was also her college minor, comedy theatre and improvisation. So she took a job working for the corporate entertainment division at Second City in Chicago. Two years of the windy city was enough and she returned to the Twin Cities, with husband John Sweeney, to take over the Brave New Workshop from founder Dudley Riggs.

Today, Jenni’s core belief is the driving force behind the Brave New Workshop—people from all walks of life can embrace the philosophies of improvisation to find their most creative, innovative, and confident self. With that belief, she’s transformed the Student Union (previously Brave New Institute) from teaching and speaking to seven students a week into one of the world's leading schools for the study of improvisation, with more than 150 students every week. Her ability to speak about, perform and teach improvisation has helped her inspire thousands, including Fortune 500 clients such as Sprint, Texas Instruments, and Hewlett Packard. She has been asked to do large speaking engagements and lead improvisation workshops at the prestigious Chicago Improvisation Festival, the Big Stinkin' Improv Festival in Austin, TX, Funny Women Fest in Chicago and at colleges and universities across the US. If you ever have her as a teacher, ask her to show you her deer impersonation.