Bio
Jaclyn “Jacks” Genega is a wilderness skills educator, full-time van-lifer, and the founder of Wildcard Wilderness, a school and brand built around self-reliance, resilience, and the confidence to face the unknown.
Raised in central New Jersey, Jacks’ path into survival and bushcraft has taken her across the world. Before becoming a full-time wilderness educator, she worked as a video editor in New York City and Amsterdam, then began traveling solo throughout the UK and Europe. Along the way, she encountered earthquakes, flash floods, high alpine terrain, and unpredictable wildlife, experiences that helped shape her respect for preparation, adaptability, and practical survival knowledge.
Her formal training includes time studying bushcraft with Woodland Ways in the UK, where she completed their Northern Forest Year, a year-long intensive in Scotland’s East Lothian region. She later brought that knowledge back to the United States, continuing to train with and work alongside experts in emergency preparedness, bushcraft, and wilderness survival.
Jacks is also a cast member on Alone Season 13, which begins airing June 17 and continues through September. That means Survival Games competitors will have the unique opportunity to learn directly from someone they’ll also be watching on television during the same season.
As one of the newest additions to the Survival Games instructor team, Jacks brings a powerful combination of real-world experience, formal training, calm instruction, and deep passion for the craft. Her teaching is rooted in the belief that survival skills are not just about enduring hardship, they are about building confidence, resourcefulness, and the ability to stay grounded when circumstances become unpredictable.
At the Survival Games, Jacks will help competitors sharpen their skills, expand their mindset, and better understand what it means to become the wildcard in any situation.