Jen found a love of books when she was young, toting Charlotte's Web around with her like a security blanket, and never grew out of it. Luckily, she had a houseful of books growing up in New Jersey, with a shelf of Reader's Digest Condensed books, and another of National Geographic magazines along with storybooks and atlases and more.
She went to college at MIT, and followed up with work in a cancer research lab at MD Anderson in Smithville, and Parkinson's research at UT Austin. After several years as a stay-at-home parent, she now works as an office manager and homeschools two of her three children. She found a path to volunteering in the community through The High Road on Dawson, an Austin non-profit that helps many local groups provide help to people living in central Texas.
When she and friend, Monica Keller, discovered their mutual love of Dolly Parton they decided to throw a party. Since they were throwing a party, they decided to make it a fundraiser, and discovered Dolly's own charitable force for good, the Imagination Library. Things snowballed from there! Jen is happy to be a part of R&B Literacy, and hopes to grow until every kid in Central Texas gets their very own home library.