MEET Jennifer Abounader-Ciesla

There may be no more unsung role in the production of this or any magazine than that of the fact-checker. The job entails talking with sources who have provided information that made its way into our stories and, moving from the very first line of text to the very last, confirming that every detail we’ve reported is, in fact, accurate. We are blessed to employ several crackerjack fact-checkers, Jennifer Abounader-Ciesla among them.

As it turns out, Jen had a professional background that lends itself to the sort of scrutiny so essential to the fact-checking process: She was a school librarian in New York City for thirteen years. (Is there a more scrutinizing occupation than librarian?) At River Towns, she’s put those analytical skills to good use, fact-checking stories covering an array of subject matter—from a lawyer who’s been a leading advocate for young victims of sexual abuse to the keeper of the archives for the late Broadway illustrator Al Hirschfeld and the Bucks County artist Ben Soloway. She especially enjoyed working on our Summer issue, with our expanded coverage of America’s 250th birthday, a deep dive into the River Towns’ role at the dawn of the American Revolution.

“What I love most about fact-checking is talking to new and interesting people, hearing their stories, and learning about their fields of expertise,” Jen says. “It is always a privilege to talk to artists about their craft, business owners about their passions, and historians/curators about preserving the work and stories of the past.”