Jennifer Jettner

Education

About Me

Jennifer Jettner is passionate about promoting food security, food justice, and food sovereignty. In essence – who gets to eat, what do they eat, and how was it produced? She believes that food issues are symptomatic of structural inequities and have the power to galvanize social movements at local and global levels. To that end, her research interests also include race and privilege, inclusive community building and organizing, and sustainable community development.

Jettner has been exploring how we might unveil systems of oppression and privilege using food as a critical lens and community gardens as sites of active citizenship and community-building. Her dissertation is a mixed-method study that examined perceptions of gardeners about the role community gardens in food deserts play in promoting food justice. She explored organizational practices, decision-making processes, demographics and social capital benefits to gain insights about who is the "community" in these gardens and who benefits from them. Her study will provide a foundation to build anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work community practice within the realm of environmental justice.

Jettner has teaching experience in BSW and MSW programs, including online MSW distance education. Her teaching interests include social justice and human diversity, macro and community practice, research methods, and food justice. She is excited to contribute to the emerging field of environmental social work education. Jettner has community and macro practice expertise. More recently, she has overseen the development of university-wide data infrastructure to assess community engagement activities and has collaborated with other institutions in these efforts. She plans to continue advancing community engagement through her own research and teaching.

Research Interests

food security, food justice, race and privilege