Originally from York, Pennsylvania, Jami received her PhD in English Literature from Indiana University after completing her BA in English and Sociology at Smith College. After a number of years working with survivors of violence on university campuses and in the community, she also earned an MSW from Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work in 2010.
Jami regularly teaches in the Text & Tradition program in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH), courses on gender-based violence in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and literature courses in the English Department. She also works with a team of students each year in the development of the Gender Violence Database, housed in the Humanities Digital Workshop.
As one of the founding members of the Prison Education Project (PEP), she also spends time teaching, advising, and mentoring incarcerated students at two nearby correctional facilities and engaging students and colleagues on the Danforth Campus around issues of incarceration. She is currently the Coordinator of PEP's Reentry Program.