Jessica joined the Office of Victim Assistance in October 2007. She has held various positions in the office and was promoted to the Director of the department in January 2012. Jessica is familiar with the University of Colorado Boulder as she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology here. She then went on to earn a Master’s degree in Community Counseling from the University of Phoenix.
Jessica has worked as a contract therapist at MESA (Moving to End Sexual Assault), Boulder's sexual assault crisis center, doing individual therapy and primary and secondary survivor groups. Before that she was MESA's Client Services Coordinator, as well as a counselor and supervisor on MESA's 24-hour hotline. Jessica was also part of the victim advocates for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for over seven years as well. In the Spring of 2014 Jessica was a negotiator for the Department of Education's Federal Rulemaking Committee helping inform new regulations based on the 2013 re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Jessica was the Interim Director of CU's Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) from Sept. 2021 through Feb. 2022. CAPS is a team of over 60 clinicians providing on-campus mental health and psychiatric services.
Jessica has a background in a variety of trauma informed therapeutic modalities including, but not limited to, mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy. She also has presented locally and nationally on a variety of trauma informed practices, how to support survivors, neurobiology of trauma, vicarious trauma, and campus advocacy programs. Jessica believes in a trauma-informed, multicultural approach and that we also must look at the intersection of trauma, oppression, and discrimination and how that can play a role in impact and recovery. Jessica's career has always focused on crisis and trauma work and has an on-going commitment to social justice and she continues to bring her skills of integrated therapy, advocacy, and presenting to support the CU Boulder community.
As a long time victim advocate her motivation is "sometimes we have to do the work even though we don't yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it's actually going to be possible." -Angela Davis. As well as her core goal in her work is, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou.