Jessica works in the intersections of education, the arts, and civic engagement. With twenty years in the nonprofit sector, she has designed and implemented civic participation initiatives, arts-based community programs, and a variety of education, service, and advocacy events. Her work has included immigrant rights organizing, community education, and using drama-based approaches to learning and community-building.  Jessica holds an M.A. in Applied Theater from CUNY School of Professional Studies and an M.A. in Adult Education & Community Development from the University of Toronto. She has taught graduate-level courses in teamwork and collaboration with the Industrial Design program at the University of the Arts and is certified as a Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She currently teaches adult ESOL with District 1199c Training and Upgrading Fund and Temple University. She is a Founding Partner of The Blue Door Group, an education and training consulting firm. Jessica is interested in embodied learning and in the role of creativity, arts, and design in strengthening institutions, communities, and movements.

Performance, storytelling, and the use of the body in creative expression offer opportunities for participants to reflect on their lives, connect to each other and to the broader world, and draw upon new and existing skills. In addition to building confidence, creating theater and performance, sharing stories and histories, and "getting into" our bodies can give opportunities to shift habits, identify our truths, and show up in the world as active, creative beings with the capacity to effect meaningful change. Examples of my work include collaboratively developing and performing theater based on the stories of older adults and working with intergenerational groups of English Language Learners in using drama as a means of building language and public speaking skills. As an artist and educator/facilitator, my work celebrates the creativity of individuals and the potential of collaboration. Through participant-centered approaches to storytelling, movement, improvisation, and theater, I support participants in identifying and developing skills and interests that are meaningful to them. As an artist, my interests include improv, site-specific work, participatory and collaborative theater-making (devising), puppetry, and physical theater. As an educator and facilitator, I believe strongly in community-building, valuing the knowledge that each person brings and that we create together through dialogue, and creating spaces of play and exploration in which we can support and value each others' strengths.