Writing
Jess started as a baby feminist blogger in the late-2000s, and since then has been widely published in global outlets and academic journals, and has written behind the scenes for CEOs and high-level policymakers worldwide.
Jess is a word nerd, joyful list-maker, lover of word play,
and a believer in the power of language.
She has a deep bench of diverse writing and editing expertise, from op-ed and speechwriting to reporting and narrative storytelling. She has worked alongside many different voices in a range of contexts.
Jess publishes Birdseed, a Substack newsletter with a heartfelt and humorous Buddhist Perspective on life.
Select writings
-
A visual essay on searching as an act of devotion, faith, and humanity.
“To search is to have the experience of having had and not having, all at the very same time. It is the poignant, often public, articulation of wanting something that you don’t yet or no longer (and may never!) possess. Confident and vulnerable at once, searching is a rainbow swirl of hunting, yearning, hoping, grasping, and waiting. You’re really all the way out there.”
-
As a writer processes her miscarriage, the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the bardo helps her gather fortitude and insight where there had been misery and victimization.
“These first moments in the bardo are agony. And yet, I feel a twinge of good fortune to have the chance to dwell inside of it. I hate it here, and I am also grateful to experience this loss in slow, vivid phases. I take my time with it, because it’s what I’ve been given and now it’s all that I have.”
-
In the face of heightened fear and violence, leaders must examine how a troubling global context is affecting them, their leadership, and those they lead.
“Or we can remain open. We can remain open despite every reason not to. We can digest fear, and use it to stoke the embers of compassion and inform our actions accordingly. We can acknowledge our own humanity—which includes acknowledging fear, uncertainty, and feelings of vulnerability—as well as the humanity of others.”
-
The vision of planetary health is holistic harmony of interdependent social, health, and environmental systems. A new approach to leadership as a next generation comes of age is required to realize it.
“Reversing the urgent decline in environmental trends and their related effects on human health will require an organised movement of leaders with the skills and attitudes that enable them to pursue effective solutions.”
-
The Helms Amendment was enacted in 1973 and bars US aid recipients from using funds for abortion services, even in countries where it is legal.
“What US elected officials are doing to the reproductive rights of women in developing countries – through foreign policy that exports our own abortion hang-ups – is reproductive colonialism.”
-
Kate Bolick's article on a crisis in relationships is black and white. Many women are happily existing in the grey in-between
“Young women need to know that intimacy doesn't have to be a casualty of autonomy, and that sometimes it actually develops as a result. Just as young people need scientifically accurate sex education to keep them safe, so we need accurate relationship education to keep us sane.”
-