Jennifer was raised on a ranch in rural Fremont County and completed her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering at Colorado State University-Fort Collins. Jennifer is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado and spent four years in private consulting before joining El Paso County in 2000. She completed her master’s degree in Public Administration at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2013. Jennifer has dedicated the last twenty-five years of her professional career to public service in local government and was appointed in May 2016 to the position of County Engineer for El Paso County, the most populous County in the State of Colorado. She retired from El Paso County in May of 2024 and is currently the District Engineer for the Fremont Sanitation District.

Jennifer is passionate about regional collaboration and has been instrumental in developing partnerships and coalitions at the local, state, and federal level. Through those partnerships, she has been successful in innovatively bringing needed transportation funding to the Pikes Peak Region. Jennifer’s educational experience at UCCS was a catalyst to her career advancement and she is a strong advocate for the School of Public Affairs. Jennifer is also a member and officer with the BPOE Elks Lodge #610, member and officer with the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 13, and is a member of the Pikes Peak Round Table. She and her husband Derek have two daughters and she actively volunteers in the community and her parish.