Student Speaker

Jenn Chambers (MALS 2021)


Jenn Chambers began the GLS program in January 2017 with no particular focus in mind other than a desire to be back in the classroom as a student. Like many in the program, she enrolled part-time so that she could continue working as the Assistant Vice President of Lifelong Learning in Alumni Engagement and Development at Duke, supporting the 180,000 alumni around the world in their academic, professional, and personal development needs. While she has the opportunity to learn alongside the alumni and their families during the in-person and virtual programs she directs, Jenn found digging more deeply into topics through reading, research, and conversation to be an incredibly rewarding experience as a graduate student, particularly topics linked to the Medieval period which became the unexpected focus of her MALS degree pursuits. This will be the second degree she earns from Duke, having completed an undergraduate degree in Theater Studies exactly twenty years ago from the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. After graduating in 2001, she worked primarily in non-profit arts organizations in program development and communications at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, Virginia before returning to work at Duke in 2014 as the Director of Alumni Education.