Mississippi-born Jennifer V. Cole is Features Editor for Southern Living magazine. After graduating with honors from Auburn University with a triple major in Economics, French, and German, she made her way to New York where she worked as an editor for Travel + Leisure. She has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, ridden elephant-back through the jungles of Thailand, and sailed on gulets over the Aegean Sea. She’s generally made it her mission to eat her way around the world, and she’ll try anything once.

Cole is a cornbread-loving member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. She’s been named an Arkansas Traveler by the Governor and Secretary of State of Arkansas. She regularly appears at conferences and on panels at events such as the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, and Food Blog South to discuss the role and importance of Southern food. This year she was a speaker at the inaugural Southern Food Writing Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is a junior board member of Jones Valley Teaching Farm in Birmingham, Alabama. Her work has been recognized by min, Folio, and the Society of American Travel Writers.

Cole speaks French, German, and Italian—and enough Dutch to get in trouble. She takes her bourbon neat.

Follow her on Twitter at @jennifervcole