Jenny Toomey

Jenny Toomey (born Jennifer Gillen Toomey in 1968) is an American indie rock musician and arts activist from Chevy Chase, Maryland, and later, Washington, D.C. She was a member of the bands Geek, Tsunami, Liquorice, Grenadine, So Low and Choke, among others, and has also recorded under her own name. In November 2007, she was appointed Program Officer for Media and Cultural Policy in the Media, Arts and Culture Unit at the Ford Foundation.

Toomey co-founded the Simple Machines record label in 1990 with a housemate who left the project soon after. Toomey ran the label with Kristin Thomson from 1990 to 1998 out of their house in Arlington, Virginia. Along with TeenBeat and Dischord, Simple Machines helped document the D.C. punk and indie rock scenes. Tsunami was also greatly influential in the D.I.Y (Do it Yourself) movement among the punk, grunge and indie communities. Among the artists released on Simple Machines are Tsunami, Grenadine, Franklin Bruno, Ida, and Scrawl, among others.

Toomey was formerly the executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, a Washington, D.C. think tank that translates the complex issues at the intersection of music, policy and law, aiming to help (primarily independent) musicians, including intellectual property rights, health insurance, and the effects of corporate consolidation of radio and the music industry. She helped found the organization in 2000.

Toomey is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in philosophy.

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