Jennifer Minner's teaching and research explore tensions and areas of opportunity between land-use planning, historic preservation, sustainability, and community development. She is focused on methods of care, conservation, and sustainable adaptation of the built environment. Additionally, her research emphasizes analytical and participatory mapping; equity, reinvestment dynamics and public space; and creative and critical approaches to technology.

Minner's experience includes planning, research, and community mapping projects related to land use and sustainability, historic preservation, community and economic development, and institutional research. She has been a principal investigator, project director, coprincipal investigator, and project manager on an array of research projects sponsored by government agencies and nonprofits including the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Texas Historical Commission, and City of Austin. She served as chair and heritage commissioner on the Olympia Heritage Commission and has served on the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission. She is a past president and a founding board member of the MidTexMod chapter of Docomomo U.S., a nonprofit dedicated to documentation and conservation of the Modern Movement in Central Texas.

Minner's education background includes a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Washington, an M.U.R.P. from Portland State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.