Born Jacqueline Leigh Ross in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1977, Jackie Lieberman graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, with a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism in 1999. While in school she learned from the best, working as a freelancer for the Better Homes and Gardens website during her senior year and as an intern for Field & Stream and The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle during the summers before.

Shortly after graduation, Jackie moved to New York and became an editorial assistant for Family Life magazine. In 2002, she attended the French Culinary Institute and soon went on to work in the food department at Woman’s World magazine, where she eventually became an associate editor and the author of a weekly household hints column.

In June of 2006, Jackie left Woman’s World to freelance. Most days, she writes and edits from her home in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, where she lives with her husband Eric, son Noah, daughter Evelyn, parakeets and a silky terrier named Lacey.