Jordyn Creager: Guiding teens into successful careers

Published 1:30 am Saturday, March 21, 2026

This is one of 12 finalists for The Herald Business Journal’s annual Emerging Leaders awards for 2026. The winner will be announced on April 7.

Jordyn Creager, 34

Director of Life & Workforce Readiness, Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County

Jordyn Creager’s career path has been “a very zigzaggy line.”

Now, all those twists and turns help her relate to the kids and teens she meets at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County.

“I am so thankful that God led me here to this role,” Creager said. “I do feel like it really highlights the things that I’m good at in my heart.”

Creager provides young people with real-world learning opportunities through career exploration and life skill development. Sometimes that means a lesson on resume creation, and other times it’s field trips to different workplaces.

“They get to experience a day in the life, and talk to people who work there,” she said. “Having kids have moments that are like eureka moments, and they look at me, and they say something like, ‘I want to do this,’ or ‘I know this is what I would like to do.’ That’s everything.”

Before Creager was helping teens decipher what they wanted to do, she was a high school teacher wondering the same thing.

“I was 21 when I started teaching, so I kind of wanted to see what else was out there,” she recalled.

After leaving teaching, she worked for seven years in various administrative and human resources roles in the tech field until a former coworker told her about the director of life and workforce readiness position. The job connected both her corporate world and her background in teaching, Creager said.

“It really was just a perfect mix of everything that I wanted to do,” she said.

Since taking the position more than a year ago, Creager has led a Teen Program Committee, which brought new, unique activities to the clubs. The improved programming resulted in a nearly 20% increase in teen enrollment, she wrote.

At the same time, she tripled the number of workforce partners and experiential learning opportunities available. Some of the partners the Boys & Girls Clubs work with include Boeing, Compass Construction, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, Pfizer, Community Transit and the Port of Everett, among others.

In her second quarter, she received the Cheers for Peers award in recognition of her leadership and collaborative approach, she wrote.

“When Jordyn joined our team as our director of life & workforce readiness, I had no idea that she would literally make my workforce dreams come true!” A nominator wrote. “She has been able to take a very loose job description and title and make it amazing.”

Outside of work, you can find Creager spending time with her 2-year-old, leading a youth group at Cascade Community Church in Monroe or using her calligraphy skills to make signs for people in the community.

Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com. X: @JennaMillikan