Meet the Authors
Jenny Kerr Schroen
Jenny Kerr Schroen grew up the middle child of three sisters in a creative, close-knit family in Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended the University of Kentucky and went on to pursue Graphic Design at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. She spent the next 15 years exploring the world, practicing design, and travel blogging with her sisters. She won a short-story writing contest with Conde Nast Traveler Magazine that whisked her away on a jet-setting blogging tour of Argentina and Uruguay. Deciding life wasn’t wild enough, she reconnected with and married a widowed college friend with four young children. Jenny moved cross-country from California to reside in Salisbury, Maryland with her new instant family. In 2019, Chris Eccleston hired her as the Creative Developer for Delmarva Veteran Builders (DVB), a commercial construction firm. In 2020, she won a MarCom Award, an international creative competition, for developing DVB’s ad campaign and new tagline “Grit Leads to Greatness”. Extensive research regarding the power of Grit and her first-hand view of the workforce shortage inspired Jenny to co-write the dystopian children’s book, Grit Leads to Greatness -a nod to her own kids for persevering through tough times while demonstrating to all people the vital impact construction trades have on the world.
Chris Eccleston
Chris Eccleston is the President and founder of Delmarva Veteran Builders (DVB) located in his hometown of Salisbury, Maryland. He is a Navy veteran who served for six years as a nuclear machinist mate on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The ship was involved in three different tours for both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Chris received a construction management degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and earned his MBA from Salisbury University. He has been in the construction industry since 2007 managing over $150 million in commercial construction projects. Chris continues to reside in Salisbury with his wife and two children. In addition to DVB, he formed Trashforce, which offers roll-off and residential trash services. Chris has been awarded “40 under 40” from Building Design + Construction Magazine and “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Maryland Capital Enterprises among other accolades. As DVB grew, the company gained recognition for its strong company culture, next-level design, and professional development for its workforce. Chris has always been intrigued by the art and marketing world and possessed a long-time vision to write a children's book about construction. Teaming up with his creative developer, Jenny Schroen, they devised a fantastical world of trade characters combined with epic adventure for their first children's book, Grit Leads to Greatness.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THEIR STORY
First-time authors Chris and Jenny have worked on many fresh ideas together at Delmarva Veteran Builders (DVB) and realized they shared a long-time dream to write a children’s book. Basing their concept on DVB’s tagline, “Grit Leads to Greatness,” they devised an epic adventure book to show both parents and children that construction is heroic. Once the story was written, Chris and Jenny spent most of 2022 meeting with pioneers and thought leaders of the industry, learning more about what was being done to address the immense labor deficit. They figured they were onto something when they began hearing from not just national construction organizations, but also people outside of the industry who shared stories of how the workforce shortage affected them personally. Chris and Jenny quickly realized that one group or construction affiliation was not going to solve this. It was going to take a global effort to introduce a new generation to the trades. They hope their book, Grit Leads to Greatness, can be used as a tool to help bring together people from all walks of life to conquer an issue that impacts all of humanity.
One word of warning from Chris and Jenny: if you title your book Grit Leads To Greatness, giving up is NOT an option. The joke’s on us.