About Jenna | Let's Talk Momentum

Dr. Jenna Morton-Aiken, PhD

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Jenna founded Let's Talk Momentum because she knows what it's like to be a high performer with great potential who gets stuck time and again anyway. Whether in her work or home life, being stuck in one place meant she lost momentum everywhere because it's all connected. It also made her feel lonely and powerless, and that was not the person she wanted to be in the world. Jenna thought she would just learn how to coach other and had no idea what a transformative tool it would be in her own life. From skeptic to believer, she believes everyone deserves coaching because everyone deserves to be seen, heard, and validated.

Much like the work she already does as a teacher, researcher, and program administrator, Jenna coaches because she wants to help make the world a better place. She began teaching writing because she believed in giving folks access to the power of language and the skills to put their voice out into the world. Coaching feels like the next level, giving her the skills and platform to amplify awesome individuals further along in their life journey.

That's why she founded Let's Talk Momentum, a coaching practice dedicated to helping other folks find leadership for their own lives so they can pay it forward. Through conversation, curiosity, listening, and language, she's dedicated to facilitating the growth of humans because she believe that's how we create a world we actually want to live in.

In addition to her Leadership Performance Coaching Certification (ICF Level 1, pending), she holds a Ph.D. in English (rhetoric and composition) from the University of Rhode Island; M.A. in Creative Writing from Brunel University; and B.A. in Political Science from Goucher College.

You can read more about her other work and publications as the associate director of writing and English language support at Brown University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, where she leads the Writing Fellows program and teaches in the English department. Her most recent book, Parenting While PhDing: Surviving and Improving the Working Conditions of Graduate Student Parents, features diverse stories of navigating a rigid system not built for inclusion. Applicable well beyond parenting and the academy, Parenting While PhDing shares what's possible when we push back, lean in, and co-create something better than what came before.

Occasionally you can find evidence of her rare encounters with social media on LinkedIn, Twitter, or podcasts like Be Less Careful.

When she's not in the academic, writing, or coaching worlds, she relies on good books, K-dramas, and snuggling with her husband, two cats, and two amazing kiddos to keep her going.