Jennifer van Alstyne, MA, MFA
Jennifer van Alstyne is a Peruvian-American poet and owner of The Academic Designer LLC. She empowers professors as they work together 1-on-1 on their online presence. When college and university faculty build a strong digital footprint, they create a legacy for their work and invite opportunities for their future.
She helps academics share their teaching, research, and leadership online. She offers bespoke services including done-for-you bio writing, social media training and strategy, and personal academic website design.
Jennifer received her MFA from Naropa University in Writing and Poetics where she was the Jack Kerouac Fellow. She has an MA from University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Literature and Cultural Studies where she was a fellow. She received her BA in English from Monmouth University. Connect with Jennifer on social media @HigherEdPR / @JenVanAlstyne
Jennifer@TheAcademicDesigner.com
Poetry
Jennifer van Alstyne’s poetry has been published in journals including The Citron Review, COG, Crack the Spine, ELKE, The Foundling Review, Paper Nautilus, Stonecoast Review, and Sweet Tree Review. She is currently on hiatus from publishing and now has a stack of poems to submit in 2026.
Jennifer was poetry editor of Bombay Gin. She loved working with poets and writers as a faculty liaison during the Summer Writing Program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.
Research
Jennifer van Alstyne writes about social media and communications at The Social Academic, which is ranked in the top 40 Higher Education blogs. She shares interviews and advice articles on managing your online presence in academia. Her primary area of research was place, landscape, and representations of nature in poetry.
- Read her peer-reviewed articles.
- Check out reviews of contemporary poetry collections.
- Follow her research on ResearchGate and Google Scholar.
Life
Jennifer lives in San Diego with her husband, Matthew M. Pincus and their cats, Bartlet and Ash. She practices ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging (when the cats don’t try to eat the flowers). She loves kdramas, cooking, and watching hummingbirds in the garden.
Jennifer van Alstyne 