Jen Reeder is the first journalist and 6th #Germinder20 #PowerofPinkHonoree. Reeder is a freelance journalist who specializes in pet and lifestyle features. Her first job writing about animals was for the World Wildlife Fund in 1994, but since then, her focus has shifted to man’s best friend.
She has written about pets for a variety of publications, including BBC News, The Daily Beast, Family Circle, Modern Dog, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, PBS’s Next Avenue, AKC Family Dog, Today.com and Just Labs Magazine, and for nonprofits like the American Animal Hospital Association and the Sierra Club. Her rescued dogs, Rio and Peach, provide plenty of story ideas.
Jen is proud to be the President of the Dog Writers Association of America. She is also a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the Colorado Press Association, the Society for Features Journalism and the Cat Writers’ Association.
Jen has won writing awards from ASJA, the Cat Writers’ Association, Colorado Authors’ League, American Society of Business Publication Editors, Denver Woman’s Press Club and the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA). One of her most meaningful wins was the 2015 “Best Humor” Maxwell Medallion from the DWAA for a Huffington Post essay titled, “I’ve Become a Crazy Dog Lady, But I’m Okay With It.” The piece went viral and Jen received messages and photos from women around the world proclaiming, “I’m a crazy dog lady, too!”
Jen was thrilled to be able to donate her left kidney to her husband on July 20, 2012. Just after their first “transplantiversary,” she founded a nonprofit called Rock 1 Kidney to encourage people to consider kidney donation. Hear stories of ways kidney donors are “rocking one kidney” post-donation at www.rock1kidney.org.
