diff --git a/kernel/sparkex/src/main/java/com/twosigma/beakerx/scala/magic/command/SparkMagicCommand.java b/kernel/sparkex/src/main/java/com/twosigma/beakerx/scala/magic/command/SparkMagicCommand.java
index 838fae3e88..acf4171f08 100644
--- a/kernel/sparkex/src/main/java/com/twosigma/beakerx/scala/magic/command/SparkMagicCommand.java
+++ b/kernel/sparkex/src/main/java/com/twosigma/beakerx/scala/magic/command/SparkMagicCommand.java
@@ -58,8 +58,7 @@ public SparkMagicCommand(KernelFunctionality kernel) {
             kernel,
             new SparkUI.SparkUIFactoryImpl(
                     new SparkEngineImpl.SparkEngineFactoryImpl(),
-                    new SparkUiDefaultsImpl(
-                            Paths.get(System.getProperty("user.home") + File.separator + ".jupyter" + File.separator + "beakerx.json"))));
+                    new SparkUiDefaultsImpl(Paths.get((System.getenv("JUPYTER_CONFIG_DIR") != null ? System.getenv("JUPYTER_CONFIG_DIR") : (System.getProperty("user.home") + File.separator + ".jupyter")) + File.separator + "beakerx.json"))));
 
   }