Jennifer A. Rea teaches classes in Rhetoric, English, Gender Studies, and Creative Writing. A sampling of her classes includes Medieval Literature, the literature of Ireland, Gender Theory, and poetry writing. She is a member of the Rockford Writer's Guild, helps edit Rockford University's Literary Arts Magazine, Fingerprints, oversees the Colleen Holmbeck Poetry Prize awarded every spring to a Rockford University student poet, has worked as a member of the First Year Advising team, and is the director of the Gender Studies program. Her research interests include the Japanese author Murakami Haruki, Japanese women writers, and Irish women poets.

Dr. Rea has published poems in The Delta Review, The Rockford Review, and reads her work on WNIJ's Poetically Yours. She also is a judge for Poetry Out Loud.

In her spare time, you will find her reading, writing both fiction and poetry, knitting, walking, and hanging out with her husband, teenage daughter, and her two cats, Karma Akabane and Milo.