Her Story
About Jen
I've been in the television and film industry for about 14 years, working as a producer-director at ESPN where I mainly contribute to E60, a documentary-driven brand. I pitch, produce, and direct documentaries anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes. I played sports my whole life and went to Pepperdine University where I played Division I soccer. My family comes from a film and television background, so I always knew I wanted to go into that field. I majored in sports broadcasting, thinking I wanted to be a broadcaster, but my first job out of college was as a production assistant on a docu-series about the making of the Laker Girls. That experience gave me an immediate immersive experience in getting to interview people and talk to them about their stories and their lives, and I really caught the storytelling bug. I started freelancing at various places in Los Angeles and the California area, including NFL Network doing features and Fox Sports doing opens and teases and vignettes. I still had a craving for doing longer-form content and stories, so I pursued what was my dream at the time, which was being at E60 at ESPN, one of the few places really doing long-form storytelling. I got that job about 8 years ago and picked up and moved from everything I knew in California on the West Coast to Bristol, Connecticut. I've been there ever since, doing various things from feature work to producing and directing documentaries where sports is really the entry point, but they're really more human-focused, issue-focused. A number of the documentaries I've done have been investigative in nature, and that's really where my passion lies.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jen
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell her to stay hungry, and to not let one closed-door or unanswered email deter her. I think a lot of what has helped me be successful is finding my passion, so whatever that passion is for her, to really put her foot on the gas, essentially, and to bang door, to knock doors open. Because unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the industry just requires it, and I think especially for women, we're seeing it come a long way for females in this industry, but it's still... I think, you just have to really believe in what you bring to the table and pursue those relationships, and pursue what your passion is.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think whenever you can see real-life changes happening, and for students and generations to come, I think that is really what puts gas in my tank, is being able to hopefully impact somebody, but also being able to make a difference. When I produced and directed the Katie Meyer documentary about the Stanford women's soccer player who died by suicide, we really looked at the institution and the systemic issues that happened at the university. I just came back from a screening at Stanford's campus, and the new director of the Office of Community Standards spoke to how impactful the documentary was at really not only shedding light, but really being instrumental in making a lot of changes that that office is now moving forward with. The family also just settled their lawsuit with Stanford, so we really saw real change happening because of the work that we had done at E60. I got to see that firsthand this past weekend and the last couple weeks with the settlement, which was incredible.
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