About Jen

I’m a Denver-based extreme nature chaser and photographer, a seasoned communications strategist, and (more recently) an entrepreneur.

The bulk of my 20+ -year career has focused in strategic communications and public relations, with special expertise at the nexus of communication, environmental change and extreme weather, and crisis response – necessary capabilities to help organizations and people prepare for and respond to the true nature of the issues we face today.

As I grew more senior in my career, I realized that working on these issues from behind a computer wasn’t enough; I wanted to combine my expertise with my real passions of experiencing and capturing some of the most epic shows nature had to offer. Now, my work takes me from photographing an erupting volcano, to giving a talk on self-actualization to a women’s photography conference, to deploying a sensor-laden scientific pod in front of an oncoming EF4 tornado, to creating storm chasing education programs for 500+ weather enthusiasts, to facilitating media or outreach for severe weather experts, and so much more.

I hold a B.A. in Environmental Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.S. in Journalism & Technical Communication from Colorado State University.

I fiercely believe in and advocate for gender equity and self-actualization. My personal mission is to inspire and empower people to be and do what they love, by identifying and breaking down their stories of limitation. I’m the proud founder and lead of the Girls Who Chase initiative, which elevates the content and voices of female and female-identified storm chasers, to inspire, empower and equip girls & women globally to pursue the sciences, the weather and their passions. I brought my deep experience as a communications expert - and my understanding of what it was like working in highly technical fields as a woman - to create the Girls Who Chase concept and find new ways to address systemic gender disparity issues and enact culture change.

I’ve been fascinated by severe weather and volcanoes the majority of my life, but didn’t start chasing until I was nearly 40; I allowed my own personal stories of limitation to get in my way. In 2018, I recognized what was stopping me and jumped at the opportunity to go on a storm chasing tour and get a taste of the transcendent power of Plains weather. I was hooked - and shortly after, saw my first tornado chasing on my own in Colorado. In that moment, there was no doubt: pursuing, experiencing and photographing mother nature’s most epic shows is what I live to do and is what brings me true joy. But more importantly, helping others understand and connect with their own insides - their own true joys, free of self-limitation - is my purpose.

In the following years, I taught myself to forecast and chase on my own, and picked up a camera for the first time in 2021. My work has since been published in outlets such as The Washington Post and Flaunt Magazine, and on shows including Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and NBC. I’m so proud to join a community of committed, passionate and incredibly talented chasers and photographers, to bring people stories and images of some of the globe’s most epic moments.

Contact me for prints, media or sponsorship: jenniferawalton [at] gmail.com