Jess holds a BFA in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a Master of Arts in Communication from Johns Hopkins University. She has a life-long love of art and has worked in multiple mediums over the years. She returned to her love of ceramics in 2020 during the Covid quarantine lockdown and has since built out a studio where she works in porcelain and stoneware, creating wall sculptures, ceramic totems and handbuilt sculptures inspired by her deep love of the ocean. She resides in Boca Raton, Florida with her family and enjoys scuba diving, live music, gardening and exploring in nature in her free time.

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Prior to ceramic art, Jess worked as a freelance photographer and journalist in Africa. She specialized in primatology and wildlife conservation issues in the first decade of her career and worked with organizations in east Africa such as the Gorilla Doctors, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, The Jane Goodall Institute, The Chimpanzee Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Uganda Wildlife Authority, among others. 

She served as the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Gorilla Doctors, an organization that provides life-saving medical care for critically endangered mountain and Grauer's gorillas in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda, until 2017. Jess has worked as a photojournalist in Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, DR Congo, and Kenya and continues to have a special interest in great ape conservation.