During the completion of her masters degree at ASU, Jacobsen was mentored by Richard Haefer (professor emeritus), Ted Solis (professor of musicology) and Kay Norton (associate professor of musicology).
My time at ASU was the seed for this project, Jacobsen says. My masters thesis in ethnomusicology focused on Navajo country western bands and was based on three months of fieldwork on the Navajo Nation, working at KTNN radio station in Window Rock and traveling with bands across the Navajo reservation. I am a country artist and have lived on the Navajo Nation on and off since I was 17, so exploring this scene via singing/playing with Navajo country western bands was a natural fit.
She went on to receive a PhD from Duke University, was briefly on the faculty at Northern Arizona University and eventually landed a tenure-track position in musicology, ethnomusicology and cultural anthropology at the University of New Mexico in 2013.