Jennifer is a Professor of Forensic Entomology in the Department of Sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her PhD thesis involved a field-based study that determined the effect of season and habitat on the carrion insect community over a wide spatial and temporal scale, in addition to a lab-based study that determined the role of priority effects on the colonization behavior of blow fly species. Her current research focus is on validating the field of forensic entomology by incorporating ecological principles into investigative practices and implementing stringent research practices in field and lab-based experimental design protocols. Research topics in her lab range from examining the importance of species interactions in the behavior and successional dynamics of forensically important insects during decomposition to studying community dynamics of the carrion insect community.Her lab also focuses on species identification and the use of insects for the detection of various drugs, toxins and proteins during development (entomotoxicology). Jennifer is a supporter of research at the undergraduate and graduate levels and serves as a mentor to many students in the forensic science program.