Jennifer earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and her B.A. in Biology from Harvard University.  As a graduate student instructor, she developed a strong interest in improving the learning experience of her students. This led to multiple collaborations with faculty, graduate students, and staff on curriculum development projects to introduce or increase evidence-based teaching practices in a range of instructional settings. After completing her dissertation on pollination ecology of native and non-native species in Hawaii, Jennifer joined the Integrative Biology department at UCB as a postdoctoral scholar to develop and facilitate a pedagogical professional development program for biology faculty from UCB, Berkeley City College, and Cal State – East Bay. 

Jennifer joins the Poorvu Center after 2.5 years at Caltech, where she was the Program Manager for Graduate Teaching at the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach.  At Caltech, she oversaw graduate student programming, including teaching assistant training and developing and teaching a new course on inclusive teaching in STEM.