Jessica’s passion is making sure that all voices have the chance to be heard. Blending her decade-long experience in communications, social media, and design with her Master’s Degree in Social Work, she works with organizations and communities to reach their goals through consensus building using a racial equity lens. Her broad experience ranges from preparing neighborhoods for the planning process, to creating coalitions for policy action, to leading a small community development corporation in building new affordable housing.  

You can reach Jessica at jessica@keystrategicgroup.com

Experience & Interests

Jessica relocated to St. Louis in August of 2014 to pursue two years of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, a community development corporation in North City. Prior to this jump into community work, she was a Senior Marketing Manager for Wintrust Financial in Chicago, leading the creation of a comprehensive social and digital media strategy for more than 80 community bank and specialty financing brands. 

She received a BA in Advertising and a minor in Studio Art from Oklahoma State University in 2007 and an MSW from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis with a concentration in Social and Economic Development in 2017. During her time at the Brown School, she participated in the Buder Center for American Indian Studies and the American Indian Student Association, helping plan the Annual Pow Wow.
She completed practicum experiences with both the Grace Hill Settlement House working on the North Corridor Collaborative initiative, and with the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council as a support to the St. Louis Equal Housing and Community Reinvestment Alliance. 

Before consulting full time, she served as the Promise Zone Catalyst, a shared position working with both the St. Louis Promise Zone (housed at the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership) and Forward Through Ferguson to ensure collaboration on the 189 Calls to Action from the Ferguson Commission Report. In this role, she helped carryout the first canvass day to collect critical resident feedback in all 25 zip codes of the Promise Zone. This data was used to inform the initial #2039 Action Plan for Forward Through Ferguson. In 2017, she also co-founded Equitable St. Louis, a coalition that advocates for community benefits agreements and equitable development practices.

Jessica is a past president of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, served as the Curriculum and Alumni Chairs for New Leaders Council St. Louis, and currently serves as Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Cultural Affairs, a global community development organization based in Chicago. In her spare time, you can find her talking to her neighbors, working on various art and activism projects, biking the riverfront trail and tending to her plot in the 13th Street Community Garden.