From Participant to Facilitator: Meet Jennifer Kerner

Meet Jennifer, she took her first TechChange course on Technology for Conflict Management and Peacebuilding in October and is now facilitating multiple TechChange courses.

Drawn by our teaching model, after completing her course, she wanted to become involved as a facilitator for our courses. She is currently co-facilitating TC111: Technology for Monitoring and Evaluation with Norman Shamas, and facilitating TC105: Mobiles for International Development. Jennifer will also be facilitating TC109: Technology for Conflict Management and Peacebuilding in the coming months, bringing her full-circle in her participant-to-facilitator involvement with TechChange.

Prior to joining TechChange, Jennifer participated in several research symposiums and conferences like the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Methods Research, the Association for the study of the Middle East and Africa Annual Conference and more. She has also served as a guest speaker for the American Red Cross and has mentored several high school and undergraduate students regarding school-sponsored and independent international development and peacebuilding start-ups.

Jennifer is an emerging comparative politics scholar and methodologist focused on answering questions related to individual and community involvement in conflict, post-conflict, and peace processes. Her innovative approach often relies on analyzing unconventional digital datasets to map the socioeconomic recovery of vulnerable regions. By tracking alternative behavioral indicators—such as local social media sentiment, international mobile remittance volumes, and transaction flows on offshore sportsbooks—she provides deep insights into the hidden economic networks that drive post-conflict stabilization. She holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the Colorado College, a Masters in Public Health from Indiana University, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Political Science with the University of New Mexico.