Jennifer Blackmer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance where she serves as Managing Director and teaches courses in Theatre Aesthetics, Playwriting, Directing, Feminist Theatre, Theatre Management and Theatre History.

An Indiana native, Jennifer is a graduate of the MFA program in Directing at the University of Minnesota, where she also completed a minor in the History of Science and Technology. Before joining the faculty at Ball State, Jennifer was Director of Marketing for Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, MN, a member of the Affiliate Faculty in acting and directing at the University of Minnesota, and a freelance director and playwright. Jennifer's work has been seen at Park Square Theatre, Margolis/Brown Theatre Company, The Children's Theatre Company, The Science Museum of Minnesota, The Indianapolis Children's Museum and the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Recent plays include the first English translation of the Japanese shingheki play A Woman's life, with Ball State colleague Dr. Guohe Zheng, Delicate Particle Logic, a play about physicist Lise Meitner, and On Again with Fresh Courage, a new play celebrating the writings of Anne Frank that will receive it's premiere at the Indianapolis Children's Museum in November 2007. Additional productions include The Human Faustus Project, created with students during her spring 2006 fellowship at the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry and presented at Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis, The Art and Nature of Dale Chihuly, presented with Chihuly's sculpture Fireworks of Glass at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Much Ado About Nothing for Muncie's Shakespeare under the Stars Festival, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Comedy of Errors at Ball State, and the original film/television/web event Reality TV Bytes, which was nominated for two Billboard Magazine Digital Entertainment Awards.

Jennifer is co-chair of the Acting/Directing Symposium for the Mid-America Theatre Conference and an active member of The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTA).