Jen is a wildlife conservationist who works to help carnivores and people thrive together. She leads WCN’s Sea Otter Fund, guiding investments and partnerships that support sea otter recovery and coastal ecosystem restoration along the U.S. Pacific Coast. Jen is an active participant of sea otter reintroduction working groups focused on strategy, implementation, and socioeconomic research, and she is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Otter Specialist Group. Her work is grounded in a socioecological approach shaped by more than 20 years of experience addressing human–wildlife conflict, threatened-species reintroduction, and wildlife trafficking across five continents. Along the way, she has worked with a range of threatened species, including black-footed ferrets, shortfin mako sharks, polar bears, tigers, and songbirds.
Jen is also President and Co-Founder of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Revive Working Group, a community of practice that supports the emotional resilience and wellbeing of conservation professionals around the world. Before joining WCN, she managed wildlife trafficking grants at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and led carnivore research and policy with Defenders of Wildlife and Panthera. Jen holds a PhD in Wildlife Ecology from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a BA in Organizational Biology from Claremont McKenna College. Based in San Francisco, California, she enjoys tidepooling, meditating, kayaking, and birdwatching.