Introducing
Jen Maxfield Ostfeld
“The plight of the endangered Asian elephant is of the utmost importance, but remarkably, most of us have heard little about it! The push for coexistence between humans and elephants sharing the same space requires a collaborative effort between conservationists, scientists, governments, and local communities. I am proud to serve as a ‘matriarch’ for Think Elephants International (TEI) during the Great Elephant Migration. TEI is focused on the design and implementation of conservation education programming that teaches children about elephants, animal behavior and conservation by engaging them in exciting research about their intelligence. With experience teaching children around the world, from the U.S. and the U.K. to Thailand, TEI has the potential to influence the ways in which the next generations of decision makers interact with and think about elephants and the natural world around them."
Jen Maxfield is an Emmy-award winning reporter and anchor who has covered New York and New Jersey for two decades, currently for NBC New York.
Maxfield is also Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University, where she teaches broadcast journalism.
Maxfield’s first book, More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories was published in 2022. More After the Break was an instant Amazon bestseller. In her book, Maxfield revisits the most memorable stories she has covered during her TV news career.
Throughout her 24-year career in TV news, Maxfield has reported live from news events in New York City and beyond. She was on the ground during Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and reported live from Florida after Hurricane Francis and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. She interviewed survivors following the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane landing and was part of NBC NY’s coverage of the 2016 and 2017 NYC/NJ terror attacks. She won a local news Emmy in 2018 and her anchoring and reporting were part of NBC-NY’s COVID-19 coverage that was awarded the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award in 2021, the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.
Maxfield began her career in journalism as an undergraduate student at Columbia College, where she wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator. She started an internship at CNN at the United Nations her junior year and promptly changed her career goal from sports medicine physician to journalist.
Maxfield and her husband Scott Ostfeld live in New Jersey with their three children and their dog, Rocket. She serves on the Board of Visitors at Columbia College and the Board of Trustees at the Elisabeth Morrow School.
