Jennifer Bailey

First Managing Editor.

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” – Edward Everett Hale

A graduate of Lawndale High School’s Class of 2002, Jennifer Bailey is a compassionate service coordinator and a determined advocate who provides creatives emotional and organizational support, drawing upon over a decade of social work experience in elder and family care. Having completed her Bachelor’s in Social Work at Eastern Connecticut State in 2007, Jen finished her Masters in Social Work with an emphasis on Children and Families from Southern Connecticut State, as part of an “Advanced Standing” program, within one year in 2008. As one of two in her class to do so, Mrs. Bailey is among the last students to complete said program before it was dramatically reworked as a “two year” duration. She acquired her first social work position by September of that year, and has been there ever since. Eleven years later, she’s had other offers, but is loath to shift to other aspects of the field. Having begun as an apprentice, she thoroughly enjoyed growing with the position, especially being on an ‘intake’ team, that has initial contact with the clients. She now trains others, with new care managers shadowing her, as well as handling significantly more assessments, within her expanded role. 

Regarding fandom, Jennifer was the classic 90’s anime fan, running to school to-the-wire after devouring the latest Sailor Moon episode, accepting she’d be late for middle school homeroom. She even spent her first paycheck on Sailor Moon fansubs, VHS tapes with gorgeous laserdisc covers she treasures to this day. Deeply disappointed in high school era scarcity of new episodes, this resulted in a proactive deep dive into the web, honing emerging research skills by collecting every tidbit of fandom a stack of 3.5-inch floppy discs could handle. She even created fan sites to bring previously unseen art to the English-speaking world, sharing the joy she’s known, at a “massive” 1.44 megabytes of data at a time. Later pulled into the convention scene, Magic: The Gathering and tabletop roleplaying by her future husband, she developed a love of cosplay and never looked back.  (*roar* “MORE GAMES!”) 

Furthermore, Mrs. Bailey was a coordinator of the short lived but beloved Senpai Magazine. Said publication had a mission to share with anime fandom, young and old, interesting and thought-provoking content, which gained renown in the New England convention scene. Senpai’s secondary goal, relating anime fandom’s history to present interests, gave it a significant, vibrant appeal. Furthermore, Jen took a much more proactive role, as acting-Editor-in-Chief of the online spinoff, “Chibi-Senpai” through 2013, Senpai’s last year. This included coordinating content, securing writers, layout, and most aspects of production. Since its closure, Jen has broadened her horizons into other hobbies, inclusive of shifts at the local Ren Faire, “Midsummer Magic”. When not featuring latest builds on her Boobaloo Cosplay page, Jen can be found organizing social gatherings with former Senpai staff, ring-leading cosplay photo-shoots, and networking proactively on behalf of SFS to net new candidates, internal and external. She is also an adoptive mother to rats and cats, which makes for an interesting home dynamic. 
 
Today, Jennifer primarily wears the hat of staff wrangler for Steam-Funk Studios (SFS) and The Unconventional. As first Assigning Editor, she has assisted the Editor-in-Chief for years, keeping the wheels turning while he juggles more plates than he has fingers. It does bear stating that the Baileys bring with them a synergy, having worked in publication and management together for about a decade. Within Operations, she’s also an ear to bounce staffing and tactical ideas off of, a voice of reason, and as with several others, pulls double duty as occasional model and live cat wrangler when our teams embark on a public appearance.