Leader. Scholar. Educator. Organizer.

Dr. Jennifer R. Jewell started her undergraduate career at 18 years old when she was eight weeks pregnant, working in a factory and living in a roach and drug-infested apartment building.  During this time, she co-founded a grassroots organization run by and for poor people, when she was battling homelessness and living on welfare with her child. 

Undeterred by her circumstances, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish.  Building on her experience as a community organizer, she completed both her MSW and Ph.D. in Social Work with an emphasis on community organizing.  With a focus on macro practice in her teaching, much of her scholarship of teaching and learning centers on student social connectedness through the use of social media, raising critical consciousness, and disrupting structures of oppression within social work education and practice.

Currently, she is a Professor and serves as the Director of the School of Social Work at Salisbury University on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Serving as a culturally-responsive leader within the university, she often leads workshops and book discussion groups with faculty, staff, and students on diversity, inclusion, and equity issues. She served on the planning team for the inaugural Anti-Racism Summit at Salisbury University. As the Director, she is committed to increasing student supports through research support, scholarships, and fellowships. She established the Comunidad and Umoja Scholars Program for underrepresented MSW students engaged in culturally-responsive leadership. She assisted in the establishment of a teach-out agreement for social work students attending Ana G. Mendez University’s Capital Area campus, which closed. When not serving the university, she is actively engaged in her community. After the murder of George Floyd and uprisings in 2020, she co-founded Snow Hill United, a community organization striving for racial and social justice through education, advocacy, and leadership development.