Jen grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, but her favorite childhood memories are of weekends spent hiking, canoeing and catching toads at her family’s cabin in the woods of western Pennsylvania. Itching to explore somewhere new, she spent her junior year of high school as an exchange student in Germany, where lucky timing allowed her to visit both West and East Berlin right after the Wall fell. This remarkable experience sparked Jen’s wanderlust, and she has since journeyed to 30 countries and six continents. Among her most memorable experiences are drinking yak butter tea with Buddhist nuns in Tibet, observing baby elephants while on safari in Kenya, heli-hiking on Fox Glacier in New Zealand, and horseback riding with her daughters in Iceland.

Jen completed her bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s in German at the University of Colorado Boulder (her thesis topic: how to market the American West to German tourists), and upon her graduation in 1999, she joined Nat Hab as a Marketing Coordinator. She had found her dream job, and Nat Hab trips to Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands and Baja to see gray whales captured the perfect merging of her love of wildlife, interest in conservation and passion for travel. After a long hiatus doing other things, Jen is excited to be back at Nat Hab. Her recent travels have taken her to Churchill, Manitoba to see polar bears, the Pantanal in search of jaguars, southern Australia, and Madagascar, where she fell in love with lemurs!

Jen lives on the coast of Maine, where she can be found sailing and exploring the countless beautiful islands of Casco Bay with her husband, two teenage daughters and motley crew of three rescue dogs.