Prof. Dr. Jennifer joined the Faculty of Business, Economics and Accounting, Univerisiti Malaysia Sabah in 1996 as one of the pioneer lecturers. She received her PhD in Tourism and Hospitality Management from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom in 2005 and graduated less than three years.

She served as Director for the Borneo Tourism Research Centre from 2015 to 2021. Prior to this, she was the Deputy Director for the Centre for Strategic and Academic Management (2008-2014) where she  was responsible for academic program quality assurance and program auditing and accreditation. She was appointed as Master Trainer for the AKEPT Student Supervision Module from 2009 to 2013. Between 2000 and 2002, she held the position of Deputy Dean of Research and Development at the School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. At present, she is a professor/principal fellow at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, a senior research fellow at Centre for Economic Development and Policy at UMS

Among her key national-level appointments, she is a lifetime member of Akademi Profesor Malaysia, an academic advisor for MATTA Academic SDN BHD since January 2024, and was appointed Vice President of the Malaysia Ecotourism Association in August 2024. In the research domain, she plays a pivotal role as a panel assessor for the Fundamental, Transdisciplinary, and Long-term Research Grants of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. She also serves as an Expert Panel Assessor for the Research, Development, and Consultancy Grant of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation Malaysia; a national panel auditor for the Tourism and Hospitality Program Accreditation appointed by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency; and an academic advisory board member and external reviewer for various higher education institutions in Malaysia. From 2019 to 2022, she contributed as a Field Expert on the Kinabalu Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark Scientific Committee, part of the UNESCO Global Geopark Development Special Action Team.

At the international level, she holds several key positions, including Board Member and Chair of the Academic Committee for the Asian Ecotourism Network. Her involvement with the Network includes serving as a consultant for the development of the ASEAN Ecotourism Standards for Activities, Facilities, and Services (June–October 2024), contributing to the development of the Asia Accommodation Standard and Sustainable Tourist Destination in collaboration with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and industry experts, and supporting the student volunteer program—an initiative aimed at enhancing the competencies of human capital in the Asian ecotourism sector.

Dr. Jennifer is an experienced tourism and hospitality researcher, consultant, trainer, and academic with extensive experience in the field. Her research expertise spans sustainable and responsible tourism, community-based and rural tourism, ecotourism, geotourism, tourist destination safety and risk management, sustainable human resource development, consumer behaviour, service experience, and qualitative and mixed methods research.

She has received numerous national and international research grant awards. Her recent grants include an Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grant for the project Enhancing Economic Growth in Rural Areas through Sustainable Ecotourism, Technological Preparedness, and Women’s Empowerment: An Integrated Conceptual Framework (2024), a Ministry of Higher Education grant for exploring the application of AI in the travel and tourism business (2024), and an IDS grant for developing a sustainable framework for the Kinabalu Geopark and assessing its social and economic benefits to the local community. She has also secured a matching grant between UMS and Taylor University for the research project The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tour Operations in Malaysia: Strategy, Business Models, and Future Work.

Additionally, she received a matching grant with the Kinabatangan Life Corridor Tourism Association for the project Sustainable Ecotourism Development and Operations at Lower Kinabatangan as a Premier Competitive Ecotourism Destination, the publication of which won the National Book Award in 2022 in the category of Best Environmental Sustainability.

Other notable grants include funding from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) funding, Research Institute for ASEAN, the United Nations Population Fund (Principal Investigator), a MFAT-funded research project by New Zealand Government, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Sabah, MPOB-UKM Endowed Chair, the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia, WWF Partners for Wetlands, the Ministry of Hungary, and Xellum Kft. in Budapest. In addition, she has led several upskilling training programs focused on sustainable tourism, responsible tourism practices, rural tourism, and geotourism.

Her research work has been published in high impact journals, book chapters and books in the field of tourism and hospitality; and an editorial board member for several Scopus indexed journals: Electronic Journal of Business Research Method, International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services; the Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism, and Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research.

Over the years, she received several distinctive awards:

-Lifetime achievement in Tourism and Management Award by Venus International foundation, Chennai, India,

-UMS Prominent Leadership Excellence Award -Instructor, 2017,

-UMS “Excellent Service Award” in the year 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2012

-the Best Postgraduate Supervisor Award 2011 by Centre of Postgraduate Studies, UMS.