Jenny grew up a military kid, living in a variety of habitats. She attended Troy University in Alabama for undergraduate education in Journalism and Biology. She moved to San Francisco to work in science writing and education and worked at the historic California Academy of Sciences. Moving on to graduate studies in animal behavior at Binghamton University in New York, she soon learned time spent alone in a lab was not her calling. She selected Chattanooga to be her home, and worked teaching at Chattanooga State for several years. Motherhood brought a new focus on children and families, so she went back to receive her Master’s in Occupational Therapy at University of Tennessee Health Sciences.

Since graduating OT school in 2010, Jenny worked as a school-based and clinic-based pediatric OT. She worked alongside esteemed colleagues and therapists at Siskin Children’s Institute Center for Developmental Pediatrics for nearly 10 years before moving on to Children’s Therapy at Erlanger’s North Campus. Tendrils Therapy is the culmination of a winding path towards serving families and children in a holistic and natural environment.

As a lifelong learner, Jenny has attended numerous continuing education courses in the field of OT, including completing a certificate in sensory processing disorder and mentorship from the prestigious STAR Center for Sensory Processing. Informal learning includes enjoying podcasts, research articles and ongoing conversations with families for insight into lived experiences. She aims to embrace neurodiversity-affirming practices and believes strongly that y’all means all.

Her work also appreciates the diversity of the natural world, and she leans heavily into understanding plants, animals and the ecosystem around her. She received a certificate in Horticultural Therapy from the Horticultural Therapy Institute to gain training in the practical use of growing plants with children and adults with challenges. She attends meetings, meet-ups and conferences in areas such as native plants, sustainable landscape practices, and watershed protection.

Finding beauty, play and wonder in her world are her strengths. She is a sensory seeker for vestibular, proprioception, tactile, auditory, gustatory and visual information. Olfactory sense is a weakness. Her goals include understanding number concepts enough to be successful in business and making families happy.