About

Researcher. Social Worker. Educator. Disabled. Parent.

Jen studies the implementation of special education policy and education policies that intersect with special education. Her program of research aims to disrupt persistent inequities and to understand and improve educational policies, experiences, conditions, and outcomes for students with disabilities and/or learning differences, their families, and educators who work tirelessly to support them.

Jen’s dissertation, “Why do we have to fight so hard:” Exploring the role of parents as policy agents in special education explores the critical role that parents play within special education policy implementation. This archival and interview study centers on the question of why, in the contemporary US, parents—not educators or school systems—bear the overwhelming responsibility to understand and enforce special education policy? Under what conditions? And, with what consequences? Her research explores questions of policy implementation, family engagement in schooling, power and privilege, race and racism, historical development, administrative burdens, the institutional environment, and organizational sensemaking. Given the interdisciplinary nature of her work, Jen draws from theoretical and methodological approaches from various fields, including education, political science, sociology, law and society, and disability studies.

She is also a partner, a type 1 diabetic, a sewer, a runner, and the mother of two beautiful tiny humans, an active 9-year-old rescue dog, and a cranky senior cat. Jen’s family fills her with tremendous joy and inspires her to continue working for better policies and a better world.