Passionate about new technology and the ever-changing media landscape, Jen is most excited to work on projects that explore the intersection of art, science, tech, and marketing.

After getting a degree in sculpture and working in technology, Jen spent recent years focusing on brand development, developing internal processes and digital/experiential production for clients such as Apple, Toyota, Disney, Chevy, and various beverage startups. After selling her soul to the ad world for a few years, the desire to find a greater sense of purpose brought her to Seed.

When she isn’t nerd-ing out managing projects, she’s exploring art, architecture, and green living as a co-founder of a developing arts community outside of Joshua Tree, California. She’s enthusiastic to talk about solar power, composting toilets, and ways to construct art in off-grid circumstances.

In conversation with Jen:

Share your life story in six words: The path isn’t a straight line

What was your first brush with science? When I was 5, I really wanted an ant farm, but using the resources that I had, creatively and independently decided to start a “worm farm” by collecting worms from my grandma’s garden. Vermicomposting wouldn’t enter my vocabulary for another 12 years.

Why do you think bacteria are important? Bacteria are both the building blocks of life and our symbiotic friends. It regularly gives me perspective to consider all aspects of life both in the micro and macro.

How do you define science? Test, learn, repeat.

How do you define health? Balancing diet and exercise while supporting a positive internal state and great relationships. In practice this looks like – taking a hike with my partner while laughing about life and eating a satsuma on the top of the mountain.

What are you currently reading / listening / watching? I recently finished Microbia, by Eugenia Bone

Favorite microbiome-nurturing food? Beans!

Scientist, dead or alive, you’d like to have lunch with? David Attenborough

Microbiome perturbation you’re working on: Baguettes

One fact most people don’t know about you: Pottery wheels and I go way back.

Favorite science joke or best mindgasm fact? When our planet was a boiling pot of soup, cyanobacteria created the byproduct of oxygen which, in turn, created the atmosphere that we now know (and breathe) here on Earth.