Originally from Logan, Utah, Jessica is a third-year PhD student in the City, Culture and Community Inter-disciplinary doctoral program at Tulane University. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon. After completing her B.A., Jessica spent two years traveling and working in South America, the Middle East, Europe and Southern Asia. Jessica attended graduate school at Tulane University where she completed a Masters in Public Health, with a focus on program design and implementation, and a Masters in Social Work, with a focus on disaster mental health. Prior to joining the CCC program in 2014, Jessica spent a year working and interning for USAID and MSH in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and for the Population Council in Mexico City, Mexico. Her current research interests include making health services more responsive to community needs and input, in addition to general interests in sexual and reproductive health, reproductive justice, and harm reduction service models. Jessica has a passion for travel and has visited 27 countries, and lived and worked in 8. Jessica spent three weeks in Guatemala during the summer of 2015 studying Spanish as part of her Engaged Learning Award grant. In Spring 2016, Jessica used a Victor C. Alvarez Spark Innovation award grant to develop and pilot a portable bio-hazard waste container project.