CARE Program Director
She/they
Jennifer Jiries currently serves as the UCLA CARE Program Director. Jennifer is a licensed therapist who received her Master’s in Social Welfare from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in Film/TV from Georgia State University. Jennifer started her career working in a non-profit clinic providing healthcare and abortion care. She has worked with various non-profits providing healthcare access, civil rights advocacy, community organizing, and leadership development. Her work has focused on LGBTQ+ communities, social justice issues, and providing mental health services and resources to underserved communities. She has worked with Kat-Katha providing resources and access to job training to women and children in the red-light district of New Delhi. Jennifer previously worked on the organizing committee of Models of Pride, a national LGBTQ youth conference, as well as facilitated support groups for partners and loved ones of transmasculine folks. Before joining CARE, Jennifer was working as a Psychiatric Social Worker for LA County Department of Mental Health where she was a member of the DBT Team as well as trained in CBT and TF-CBT. Jennifer is a skilled therapist, trainer, and presenter whose areas of interest are the impact of trauma and trauma-informed care, intimate partner and family violence, grief and loss, LGBTQ+ issues, intersectional identities, (re)building coping skills, and mental health education and prevention.
In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys spending time at the beach, reading, writing, traveling, and finding ways to make glitter a fashion statement.