Our Team

Tamara Jarrett, President & Co-Founder

Tamara has over 30 years of experience in higher education, including faculty and administrative positions at Ohio University, Kent State University, Louisiana State University (LSU), and currently Elon University. Prior to co-founding CORE, Tamara served as Sr. Vice President for CREW Solutions where she led the development of the campus recreation division of WTS International. Ms. Jarrett’s award-winning leadership has set new standards in service and program development toward the opening and effective operations of recreation and wellness centers across North America.

Committed to continuous learning and improvement, Tamara pursued her doctoral studies in Organizational Communication with an emphasis in Diffusion of Innovation. Her expertise and commitment to innovative thinking - grounded in experience and respect for established best practices - is the driving force behind CORE Unlimited and the projects we undertake. It is also evident in the creation and strategic direction of Connect2Concepts - an operations software she co-founded with Jennifer Jacobs in 2015 and that now serves nearly 200 recreation and wellness organizations.

She has served as an advisor to the Walt Disney World College Program, LSU Sport Management Program, and various EDI initiatives as well as numerous industry product providers and service organizations.  Tamara was the proud recipient of the Towson Distinguished Alumni Award and recently joined the Board of Directors at Dress for Success Winston Salem.

Tamara is a tennis enthusiast, amateur musician, and guest writer for the local paper. She enjoys all things nature, lapidary arts, and spending quality time with her family - human and canine. Above all, Tamara believes in giving back to our industry and community. This belief inspired the co-founding of the C2 Foundation and permeates through the CORE corporate culture.

 

Jennifer Jacobs, Co-Founder

Jenn has worked in the health, wellness, fitness, and recreation industry for over 28 years.  As the Director of Operations and then Chief Strategy Officer for a worldwide leisure management and consulting firm, Jenn has been directly involved in the pre-opening and management of over 100 recreation facilities, spas, residential amenity centers, active aging communities, and private clubs throughout the United States and internationally.  

Jenn earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ohio University where she first discovered her love of opening new facilities as a member of the pre-opening team for the Ping Student Recreation Center.  She continued to pursue that passion in the municipal parks and recreation space where she had the opportunity to open two new community recreation centers in Ohio. 

During her time in the private sector, Jenn had the unique opportunity to work with major hotel brands and developers from around the world.  It was over those 10 years that Jenn’s entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen evolved and lead her to co-founding CORE Unlimited with Tamara Jarrett.  Jenn has always been driven to create organizational systems that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, so it is no surprise that served as the inspiration to create Connect2.  Connect2 is a mobile software solution designed specifically to support the “back of the house” for recreation, fitness, spa, and leisure facilities.  Connect2 is now utilized by nearly 200 recreation and wellness organizations and growing.  

As the daughter of a librarian and a teacher, Jenn is an avid reader and knowledge seeker.  She enjoys nature, animals, journaling, photography, music, traveling, gardening, cooking, and spending quiet evenings at home with her family.  Her desire to create and support wellness and lifelong learning opportunities that are accessible to all, inspired the co-founding of the C2 Foundation.  

The Collaborative

"I could not be more pleased with the partnership we have formed with CORE and will forever be grateful for the services they have provided our department! As our department has moved forward with the restructure and growth to our professional staff and facility, CORE has provide invaluable business planning recommendations and has created solutions based partnerships that are helping to lead the way for us to become a key player in the field of campus recreation. Their professionalism, knowledge, experience, and networking abilities in the recreation field make them an organization that you want to work with because their success is equal to your success. I can't begin to express how pleased I am to have worked with the staff at CORE for the past two years and look forward having them as part of the our team for years to come! I strongly encourage any organization who is seeking the services of CORE to not think twice about working their staff. You will not be disappointed!"

- Grady Sheffield, RCRSP Director of Campus Recreation Services, Towson University