Jess holds dual bachelor’s degrees in chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing and polit­i­cal sci­ence from Vir­ginia Tech. She pre­vi­ously worked as an energy engi­neer with AECOM’s Energy busi­ness line pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal, project man­age­ment, and busi­ness devel­op­ment sup­port for renew­able energy, energy effi­ciency, and sus­tain­abil­ity projects. She has a diverse engi­neer­ing back­ground which includes expe­ri­ence in energy, con­struc­tion man­age­ment, and dis­as­ter relief both domes­ti­cally and inter­na­tion­ally includ­ing work in Haiti, Panama, El Sal­vador, the US Vir­gin Islands, Iraq, and Cuba. She enjoys apply­ing her engi­neer­ing exper­tise to devel­op­ment and human­i­tar­ian efforts and has been involved with Engi­neers With­out Bor­ders since 2016.