Jenna Mead was educated at the Australian National University (BA Hons) and the University of Melbourne (MA, PhD).She held a New South Wales Teacher's Scholarship, an Australian Postgraduate Award (University of Melbourne) and a La Trobe University Postdoctoral Fellowship. Mead has been a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney and a Senior Academic Visitor, Churchill College, Cambridge. She has also worked at Deakin University, Ormond College (University of Melbourne), La Trobe University and the University of Tasmania.
Mead has published widely in the areas of medieval, feminist and cultural studies.