About

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Jessica Bacal is director of Reflective and Integrative Practices and of the Narratives Project at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts. She leads programs to help students explore identity and find resilience in community. She also teaches a course called Designing Your Path, which guides students to consider questions like: What is your story? What matters to you? What skills do you need to pursue what matters?

She is also the editor of two books, Mistakes I Made at Work (2014) and The Rejection That Changed My Life (2021), both published by Penguin Random House.

Before her career in higher education, she was an elementary school teacher in New York City, and then a curriculum developer and consultant. She received a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, an MS.Ed. from Bank Street College of Education, an MFA in writing from Hunter College, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Northampton with her husband, two children, and two dogs.