Jenna Goldsmith ’08, M.A. ’10

Outstanding Young Alumni Award Winner

• Instructor of writing, Oregon State University-Cascades; Bend, Oregon

Jenna Goldsmith credits working as a police reporter as what brought her out of her shell. Now she encourages all kinds of sharing and expressing through her writings and teachings.

Goldsmith is in her fourth year as an instructor of writing at Oregon State University-Cascades School of Writing, Literature and Film. She is also the interim director for the Low-Residency MFA Program at the university.

During her time at Illinois State, Goldsmith was involved in the Feminist Led Activist Movement to Empower. She was instrumental in organizing both the Take Back the Night March and the bi-annual display of the Clothesline Project. She also worked to help promote the Women and Gender Studies student research symposium.

Goldsmith has continued her activism in Oregon by taking a leadership role in establishing policies and procedures for developing and maintaining diverse, equitable, and inclusive practices on campus.

Upon securing her master’s degree from Illinois State in 2010 along with a certificate in women’s and gender studies, Goldsmith earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of Kentucky. It was there that she won the inaugural Kentucky Writers Fellowship given to the outstanding Kentucky poet. She also secured the Lexington Herald-Leader Fellowship.

Since taking her position at OSU-Cascades, Goldsmith has received two grants and has published critical interviews and two poetry volumes. Six of her poems have recently appeared in edited collections.