About

Jennifer (better known as Jenna) is an award-winning business communicator and disability inclusion changemaker, advisor and creator from Atlantic Canada. Passionate about equity, inclusion and justice for disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people, she shines a light on the importance of anti-ableism education and allyship in all corners of community.

As a speaker, educator, facilitator and thought leader, Jenna creates authentic, intersectional and awareness-raising content to educate others on the importance of disability rights and inclusion. Her vibrant public relations career spans 20+ years, intertwined with 10+ years of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging experience. Her lived experience as a multiply-disabled, intersectional leader, woman and survivor is as sought after as her keen business acumen blending both authenticity and strategy.

Today, Jenna is a dedicated disability inclusion advocate, anti-ableist educator, strategic communications advisor, writer, creator and aspiring filmmaker. She’s passionate about ending disability discrimination and its pervasive systemic and social barriers while increasing authentic Disabled representation in media and community leadership.

Jenna raises awareness and educates on disabled gender justice, women empowerment and other causes she supports through her writing, visual storytelling (photography, film). She is known as a warm, grounded and expressive raconteur, connecting with others through storytelling, public speaking and collaborative projects.

She is an Atlantic Business 25 Most Powerful Women in Business honouree who has also won the Canadian Women’s Foundation Feminist Creator Prize, a Government of Canada ADM Medallion for Service Excellence, a Canadian Choice Award, the inaugural NSCC Alumni Awards Transformational Change Award recipient, a Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS-NS) Award for Excellence, and Highest Academic Achievement Award and Valedictorian in post-secondary.

Jenna’s also been a recent finalist in the Halifax Business Awards and DAWN Canada’s Hummingbird Award. Her past project management and campaign work for a provincial disability organization garnered an International Association of Business Communicators (IABC-NL) Pinnacle Award for Merit: Non-Profit Social Media Campaign.

Over the years, she was a leaderboard influencer at Social Media World Forum and created and led several viral social media campaigns in the arts sector, while also guest lecturing at the first year and MBA level at Memorial University, College of the North Atlantic, Mount St. Vincent University and Nova Scotia Community College.

She collaborates with national and international organizations, ranging from the Canadian Red Cross to UK and European disabled advocate collectives to bring educational and entertaining awareness for the betterment of society and advancement of inclusion.

Jenna has been featured in regional and national news publications, magazines, docuseries, podcasts, social channels and professional events at local, regional and national levels. Mentorship and allyship matters to her, and she offers guidance, connections to resources and production of her “Finding Avalon: Amplifying Disabled Voices” audio podcast and “DisabiliTEA: Conversations for Change” – a special edition video series under the Finding Avalon umbrella.

Her longterm goals are publishing a book, developing a theatre piece, designing an interactive art exhibition and, hopefully, creating a documentary. Jenna’s singular, intersectional voice holds a multitude of lived and professional experience as a disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent queer woman, survivor and Irish-Canadian settler ally.

Having lived, worked, volunteered and travelled extensively overseas (60 countries and counting), she has expanded her lifelong learning, perspectives and intercultural competencies. She never forgets her proud Irish Newfoundland outport village roots. After chapters of her life spent across Canada, the UK and Europe, she now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia where the kettle is always boiling and she’s surrounded by loved ones, pets, the sea, wild places, good people, the arts and activism.

If you would like to interview, feature, collaborate with or engage Jenna for an upcoming project, please contact her here.