She won Stanford University's William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for non-fiction for her third memoir, Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth Maybe, in 2016.
[1][2] Jakiela was raised in Trafford, Pennsylvania and attended Gannon University.
[3] She is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg,[4] and has also taught at Chatham University and served as co-director of the Chautauqua Institution's Summer Writers Festival.
[5] Jakiela won Stanford University's William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for non-fiction for her third memoir, Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth Maybe, in 2016.
[1] Jakiela has worked as a flight attendant and as a freelance journalist, including The New York Times.