Dr. Jennifer R. Ayres is Associate Professor of Religious Education and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. Her research interests include religious identity, faith formation in the context of popular culture, and feminist practical theology. 

She is the author of three books:

• Waiting for a Glacier to Move: Practicing Social Witness (Wipf and Stock, 2011)
• Good Food: Grounded Practical Theology (Baylor Univ. Press, 2013)
• Inhabitance: Ecological Religious Education (Baylor Univ. Press, 2019)

Her current research, for which she received a grant from Emory's University Research Committee, investigates the educational task of cultivating Christian faith that is deeply rooted in our ecological context, with attention to the kinds of religious leaders needed for this work.