jenn schiffer

  • director of community @ fastly/glitch
  • bs + ms, computer science
  • writer, speaker, community organizer

The short version

Jenn Schiffer is a Director of Community working on Glitch, now a part of Fastly, where she's responsible for supporting, growing and advocating for the friendliest community of coders.

The long version

Jenn Schiffer is a Director of Community working on Glitch, now a part of Fastly, where she's responsible for supporting, growing and advocating for the friendliest community of coders. She hasn't won any awards (not mad).

Jenn earned both a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science from Montclair State University, then joining the department to work on undergraduate and graduate level curriculum, accreditation, and advising of hundreds of students. She's taught tech literacy to non-technical majors, web development fundamentals to graduate Computer Science students, and haters how to love.

A proponent of open and ethical web technology, she left academia to work in the web development industry, first as senior engineer at the National Basketball Association, open web engineer at Bocoup, and then as Glitch's first Community Engineer. She's built software that runs the gamut from sports stats delivery and healthcare price crowdsourcing, to pixel art creation tools and databases helping doctors find the best cancer treatment for their patients.

She has spoken all over the world at nearly 100 events about JavaScript, ethics, and art. Jenn is based in Jersey City, where she has organized the developer meetup JerseyScript, was a founding core team member of the 2nd iteration of Code For Jersey City and an Honorary Emerging Philanthropist at the Women's Prison Association.

CV

Work experience

  • Fastly (acquired Glitch) β€” Director of Community (May 2022 - present)
  • Glitch β€” Director of Community (August 2018 - May 2022)
  • Fog Creek β€” Community Engineer, Glitch (February 2017 - August 2018)
  • Bocoup β€” Open Web Engineer (April 2014 - February 2017)
  • National Basketball Association β€” Senior Front-end Developer (July 2013 - April 2014)
  • Montclair State University – Department Administrator (July 2011 - May 2013)
  • Baristanet.com – Web Developer (April 2008 - April 2014)
  • Montclair State University – Graduate Assistant and Adjunct (September 2007 - 2011)

Education

  • Montclair State University β€” Master of Computer Science
  • Montclair State University β€” Bachelor of Computer Science

Organizations

  • Women’s Prison Association β€” Honorary Emerging Philanthropist
  • JerseyScript meetup β€” founder, organizer

Speaking experience

Highlights

Podcasts I've been a guest on

Workshops I've given

  • "welcome to my guestbook - going from static to full-stack on glitch" - dinosaur js, june 2018
  • "decoded: intro to javascript" - the wing, december 2017
  • "building a better web with glitch" - devfest nyc, december 2017
  • "decoded: intro to css and a11y" - the wing, november 2017
  • "decoded: intro to the web and html" - the wing, november 2017
  • "intro to js and twitter bots" - Tufts WIT, october 2017
  • "going front-end to full-stack with glitch" - empireconf, october 2017

Conference & meetup talks

Conferences i've emcee'd:

  • xoxo art + code night, september 2018
  • dinosaur js, june 2018
  • dinosaur js, june 2017
  • dinosaur js, june 2016
  • cssconf nordic, may 2016
  • dhtmlconf oakland, december 2014
  • cssconf us, may 2014