Jess is Director, Health Equity Alliance at THE HEALTH MANAGEMENT ACADEMY , where she designs and facilitates leadership development for Chief Health Equity Officers and Chief Quality Officers. Formerly, Jess directed The Academy Fellows Program (a partnership with GE HealthCare). The program is a leadership development program for C-Suite executives, as well as a succession planning & retention strategy for the nation’s leading health systems. The fellowship offers multiple executive tracks with over 200+ active fellows. These leaders are nominated, selected and supported as they execute their individual enterprise-level change management projects - a core component of the fellowship program. Jess has successfully graduated the Class of 2022 and 2023, and is now working with the Classes of 2024, 2025 and 2026 along their executive leadership journeys.

JESS TOOK HER FIRST ROLE IN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT & MEMBER RELATIONS 15 YEARS AGO IN 2009 as the intern with The Leadership Alliance Executive Office at Brown University. Jess served as the Summer Project Specialist for their National Symposium for 3 years. Leadership Alliance members include 35+ of the nation’s top institutions including all Ivy Leagues and a large number of HBCUs. Jess partnered with VPs and Deans at all member institutions to coordinate the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Leadership Alliance National Symposium.

FOR 7 YEARS, JESS DIRECTED LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SYSTEM. Jess most recently directed THE SOUZA LEADERSHIP CENTER at the University of California - Merced. For 3 years, she led a team that worked with students, faculty and local business leaders to enhance their capacity as leaders. Jess also led donor engagement for the center. Prior to UC Merced, Jess spent 4 years curating leadership development strategies at UCLA.

OUTSIDE OF FULL-TIME WORK, Jess served as a STEM Coach for SMASH.org at the University of Michigan, preparing a diverse pipeline of leaders in STEM. Jess also completed contract work with STEM CORE to design and deliver long-term training for their nationwide staff team on STEM leader self-efficacy and resilience. Jess’s largest contracted endeavor was developing a 2-year leadership curriculum for the nonprofit organization Youth In Action, a curriculum they use to this day.