Jessica joined Americans for the Arts in January 2018 and serves as Senior Manager, Local Arts and Business Partnerships. Jessica works to expand the knowledge of local arts leaders on the broad conditions that need to exist for arts and business partnerships to thrive and be leaders in the creation of those conditions, namely through the pARTnership Movement. Jessica develops and leads the organization’s local inclusive creative economy initiatives and drives strategies that assist local arts and community leaders to identify the full cultural and artistic assets in their community in order to create more equitable pathways to community resources. Prior to joining Americans for the Arts, Jessica worked as the Membership and Resources Manager for the Nonprofit Association of Oregon (NAO), providing oversight of NAO’s statewide membership program while curating and reinventing its online platform of nonprofit management best practice resources. Previously, Jessica spent nearly five years working with Portland’s local business committee for the arts, Business for Culture & the Arts (BCA), delivering programs that engaged employees from BCA’s 200+ business members, managing all marketing and communications strategies, and retaining and cultivating corporate and community partnerships. Jessica has also served in development roles at Metropolitan Youth Symphony and Literary Arts; and has freelanced as an independent web designer and developer.

Jessica graduated from Portland State University with Master’s in Public Administration and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management, and from Lewis & Clark College with a BA in Ethnomusicology and French Studies. She co-founded Portland Emerging Arts Leaders and helped design and grow its emerging leader mentorship program. Aside from thinking about how to celebrate all forms of human creative expression, Jessica enjoys cycling, hiking, travel, cooking, and listening to music from all over the world.