JaelynnPenn

Jaelynn Penn, a Louisville, Kentucky, native, who was an All-Big Ten women’s basketball player at Indiana before becoming a starter at UCLA, was hired as a University of Kentucky women’s basketball graduate assistant in Summer 2026.

In her role as Kentucky women’s basketball’s graduate assistant, she will work alongside the coaches, players and staff to aid in the day-to-day responsibilities of the program.

Before her arrival to Lexington, she worked at Shoot 360 in Louisville, where she trained young athletes. Before that, she played professionally in Puerto Rico and Germany in 2023-24. Prior to then, she was a graduate assistant for UCLA in 2022-23.

During Penn’s five-year college career, she combined for 1,572 points, 615 rebounds, 183 3-pointers, 251 assists, 135 steals and 29 blocks. She shot 40.0 percent from the field across her time at IU and UCLA. She collected several all-conference awards including 2017-18 Big Ten All-Freshman Team, 2018-19 All-Big Ten Second Team, 2019-20 All-Big Ten Honorable Mention and numerous Big Ten weekly honors.

Penn earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Indiana in Spring 2021. She later earned her Masters in Education under the Transformative Coaching and Leadership program from UCLA in Spring 2023.