Jennifer Skiff

Early life and education

Skiff was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Bar Harbor, Maine. Growing up, her family had pet dogs, and she has said she received emotional healing from dogs. She graduated from Texas Christian University in 1983 with a double major in broadcast journalism and criminal justice.

Television

Skiff began her career at WTVX-TV in Fort Pierce, Florida, and also worked as an anchor and reporter at WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine, and covered crime at KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah. Wildlife Minutes, a television series she developed that highlighted the plight of endangered and threatened species, premiered on the Discovery Channel in 1987. She worked as an investigative correspondent and producer for CNN for 14 years, and was a producer on the channel's environmental program Earth Matters. As a segment producer for TBS's Network Earth, she was nominated for a 1992 CableACE Award for magazine show special or series, and received an Environmental Media Award for TV News Magazine Segment as correspondent and writer for the series in 1996.

Books

Skiff started working on her first book, God Stories: Inspiring Encounters With the Divine, after what she described as a miraculous recovery from bone marrow cancer at the age of 32. It was published by Random House in 2008 and includes 100 stories of encounters with God, which she collected from people of various faiths, backgrounds and nationalities. Publishers Weekly called it "mysterious and faith-inspiring" and "inspiring if uneven". It was excerpted on Today.com.

Her second book, The Divinity of Dogs: True Stories of Miracles Inspired by Man's Best Friend, was published by Simon & Schuster on October 23, 2012. The book is a compilation of inspirational stories about dogs gathered from people's submissions. It reached number 8 on the Toronto Star nonfiction bestseller list in April 2015. The Divinity of Dogs was based on submissions Skiff received when writing God Stories. Starting in 2010, she spent over a year collecting submissions, photos, and interviews. The stories are told from the point of view of the dog owners. The book has a musical companion, The Divinity of Dogs: Music to Calm Dogs and the People Who Love Them, created by Skiff and pianist George Skaroulis.

Personal life

Skiff splits her time living between Maine, USA, and Perth, Australia. She is a trustee of the Dogs' Refuge Home, a no-kill shelter in Australia, and also works with other charities to help abused and abandoned animals.