Named one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress, Rev. Jen Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian, and national leader in the multi-faith movement for justice. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Faith Matters Network and comes to this work with nearly a decade of experience at nonprofits combating intergenerational poverty. Rev. Bailey is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and serves locally on the staff of Great Bethel A.M.E Church in Nashville, TN.

An Ashoka Fellow, Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar, On Being Fellow and Truman Scholar, Jennifer earned degrees from the Tufts University and Vanderbilt Divinity School where she was awarded the Wilbur F. Tillett Prize for accomplishments in the study of theology. Her work has been featured on OnBeing with Krista Tippett, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and dozens of other publications. Her new book, To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss and Radical Hope was published by Chalice Press in October 2021.

Rev. Bailey serves on the boards of the Fetzer Institute, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, and the Healing Trust. She enjoys good food, dancing like no one is watching, and road trip adventures with her husband, psychotherapist and religious studies scholar Ira Helderman and her toddler Max and new addition the family, baby Celia Pearl.