Jennifer L. Pozner is founder and executive director of Women In Media & News (WIMN), a media analysis, education and advocacy group. She is also managing editor of WIMN’s Voices, the popular group blog on women and the media. Her book, Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV (Seal Press, Nov. 1, 2010), grew out of WIMN’s media analysis program.

A widely published journalist, Jennifer serves on the board of editors of In These Times magazine. Her work has appeared in corporate media outlets such as Newsday, Chicago Tribune and the Boston Phoenix, independent magazines such as Ms. magazine, The American Prospect, and Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, and online media such as WomensEnews, AlterNet, and Salon, among others. Her essays have appeared in numerous anthologies. Additionally, she has served as an adviser for and has been featured in several documentary films, including “I Was a Teenage Feminist” and “Miss Representation.”

Jennifer has appeared as a media commentator on NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC News Now, GRITtv, Democracy Now!, National Public Radio, and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” And, because she’s a sucker for punishment, she’s gone head to head with some of the most blustery boys of cable news, including Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough.

A noted lecturer, Jennifer has spoken on women, media, politics and pop culture at more than eighty colleges across the country, on topics ranging from portrayals of women in reality television, to gender and race biases in journalistic coverage of elections, to media coverage of war, poverty and natural disasters. She conducts media literacy workshops and media trainings for women’s groups, youth, and social justice organizations.

Prior to founding Women In Media & News, Pozner directed the Women’s Desk at the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, where she wrote for Extra!, the media criticism magazine, and contributed to CounterSpin, the nationally syndicated radio show. Prior to that, she wrote the Media Watch column for the (now dearly departed newspaper) Sojourner: The Women’s Forum.

In 2009, she was recognized as one of the New Leaders Council “40 Under 40” progressive leaders in America. In 2007, Soroptimist International of NYC honored her with their “Making A Difference for Women” Award. Still, her favorite award remains her 2006 inclusion “The Real Hot 100,” a Girls In Government project honoring young women leaders making change in their communities. The “Certificate of Hotness” they gave her for media activism still makes her happy four years later—because it came with the tagline, “See how hot smart can be!”

Forbes named Jennifer one of “20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter” in 2010. Later that year, she was amused to find her non-profit activist self alongside Tyra Banks, Martha Stewart and Vera Wang on BizTech Day’s list of “25 Influential Business Women in New York City You Should Follow on Twitter.”

Jennifer is a graduate of Hampshire College. She believes, as Ani DiFranco sings, “You gotta live light enough to see the humor, and long enough to see some change.” She has been known to belt out random snippets of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode upon request.

* Photo credit: Thomas Lascher.