Meet Jessica
For as long as I can remember, my goal has been to make the world a better place. My life’s work is rooted in service, and my values are guided by a belief that we are all connected and share an obligation to care for each other.
Foundation of Service
I was born to incredible parents, Larry and Gigi, in Olathe, Kansas where they raised my little sister, Valerie, and me. Much like Centennial, our neighborhood in Olathe was safe and stable, and we attended blue ribbon schools and spent our summers in swim lessons, enrichment programs, and at the lake laughing and playing with friends and family.
I grew up going to church, the same church my mother’s side of the family was part of for four generations. We were deeply involved in our church community. We were there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, at every revival, organizing events, sharing our time, talents, and treasure, and serving the community.
In particular, my grandmother, Gloria, and my mother, Gigi, were strong leaders in our church and when there was a vacuum of leadership in my youth group, their example inspired me to step up and I took a leadership role in supporting our youth group starting when I was 13. I benefited from the support and love of our church community and do my best to love and care for people as I was taught to do.
My father’s parents modeled what we think of as the American Dream. My grandfather finished fifth grade, my grandmother finished eighth grade. He worked as a trucker and she worked in a factory while they built houses, living in the unfinished houses, using their paychecks to buy materials. From there, they built a life for my aunt and father who became the first people in their family to go to college.
My grandparents were deeply invested in their community - the kind of neighbors you could rely on regardless of the need. They exemplified hard work, kindness, humility, and ingenuity. It is because of their hard work and desire for their family to have a better life than they had that I am proud to be the first attorney in my family.
Both of my parents demonstrated caring for others and giving your time to make things better for other people. My mom worked in our youth group and was a substitute teacher. She saw the delicacy and challenges of adolescence and poured love, confidence, and a sense of self-worth into every kid at church and school just as she did with my sister and me. My father wore many hats. Along with being a talented musician and banker, he was also a public servant. My dad served the people of Kansas as an Olathe City Council Member, Mayor, State Representative, and recently retired as the Budget Director of Kansas. He worked hard to use the power of government to make people’s lives easier, to build beautiful communities, and to foster opportunity. I’ve learned a lot from both of my parents and am so grateful they taught me that when something isn’t right - you step up and do what you can to help.
Learning and Serving
Because of my family’s involvement in church and government, early on, I saw how institutions with power can impact people’s lives and felt an obligation to do what I could to ensure power was used to help people. Throughout junior high, high school, and college, I learned the nuts and bolts of government and politics, the meaning of servant leadership and how to lead, and the mechanics of organizing and lifting others up.
In high school, I deepened my knowledge of the function of government through opportunities outside of the classroom. I was one of two students from my high school selected to participate in Leadership Olathe, through which I learned about our water, fire, police, waste, and parks departments, further leadership skills, and how local government operates. I participated in Girls State and helped create and launch Olathe Youth Congress. And then, putting the cherry on the top of this civics sundae, in 2000, I was selected to present Johnson County’s Storm & Wastewater 20 year plan and goals to county leaders.
To me, helping also always meant tangible help, meeting people’s needs, meeting people where they are, and listening to them about what they need. Working in soup kitchens, folding clothes at the Kansas City Rescue Mission, painting houses for the elderly, and building homes in Juarez, I learned that people are where they are for a reason. That reason is more often systemic or structural than it is ever someone’s goal. I learned that those with power and resources have opportunities while those without don’t. And while the tangible, direct meeting of immediate needs is crucial, we must also use power and resources to change systems and structures to create opportunities for people to overcome the reasons they are struggling to meet their own needs.
Majoring in Philosophy, History, and Political Science in undergrad, I dove deeper into the academic underpinnings of government and politics, working as a TA for World Civilizations and participating as a delegation leader at Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature. After college, following my passion for our global community, I moved to Spain. Starting in Barcelona where I got my TESOL certificate to teach English, I then moved to Madrid, teaching toddlers, students, adults, and corporate executives English. Living in Madrid, teaching English to people from two to ninety-two, and traveling through Europe as much as I could expanded my worldview, opening my mind to other possibilities of living.
I left Spain to run my first campaign for Mayor Mike Copeland’s re-election. It was important to me that we run a positive campaign, speaking to his record and accomplishments and the challenges facing the people of Olathe. Running that campaign, I worked with people across the political spectrum to re-elect Mayor Copeland, which solidified my expectation that regardless of party affiliation, we can work together to achieve what is best for all of us.
A Deeper Understanding
On August 1st, 2008 - Colorado Day - I moved to Denver to earn a degree in law from the Sturm College of Law and a Masters in Comparative Politics from the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. I wanted to understand both the structure and content of our legal and governmental systems and how laws and policies impact people and society.
I loved learning the history and development of our laws as we have tinkered with the powers of the branches of government versus our individual rights and liberties, the duties we have to each other, and how to structure society for the benefit of all. I gained a deeper appreciate for this balance interning with Groundwork Denver to study the remediation of the Globeville Asarco Superfund site and TA’ing for our Environmental Law clinic where I supported the broad range of cases the clinic takes on addressing public lands, endangered species and wildlife, water, natural resources, pollution prevention, and environmental justice.
Since I was a child, I have been profoundly disturbed by conflict and war and the violence humans will exact upon each other. At Korbel, I focused on the conditions and causes of conflict, how to end it, how to heal from it, and how to prevent it from recurring. It was a challenging but rewarding field of study as I examined how government, politics, business, religion, and culture come together to create conditions for peace or conflict.
I came away from those programs with a clear goal and vision and a clear idea of how I could help us - as people - achieve that goal. What we are looking for - most of us - I believe - is Sustainable Peace. This is no small thing and we do not even have it consistently in the United States. It requires peace, development, security, human rights, and justice. It acknowledges that our economy, society, and ecosystems are mutually dependent. It means that we as people are healthy and educated, that our society is fostering respectful relationships that preserve our way of life for future generations, that our economy is stable, aiming to improve our quality of life, and that we honor and protect our natural environment and its resources. It was also clear to me that working in politics and government, working on campaigns to pass initiatives and elect leaders who shared this vision was how I could be productive toward this goal.
Belief Into Action
Working in government and politics has been intense - to say the least. And I understand the distrust and frustration so many of us feel. But I am proud of the work I’ve done and believe I’ve been able to make a positive impact in Colorado, making it a better place for all of us.
In 2014, working at RBI Strategies, we passed a countywide ballot initiative to fund a new building for the Larimer Humane Society. Larimer Humane Society provides animal protection services for Larimer County and this campaign provided unique insight into how to forge relationships between counties, service providers, and communities to get things done.
That same year, I started volunteering with the Colorado Lawyers Committee on their Election Task Force which was a non-partisan group of attorneys lending our time to study our election laws and processes and then issuing recommendations of support or opposition to potential legislation.
In 2016, I then served as the Colorado Democratic Party’s Voter Protection Director. Among other tasks, I worked closely with our Secretary of State and his election staff and Republican and Democratic county clerks from around the state to ensure that our elections were free of fraud, fair and accessible, and voters had the information they needed to register to vote and cast their ballots easily and with confidence. Our right to vote is fundamental to us having a strong and stable democracy and I am proud that Colorado has been recognized as a national leader in elections.
Starting in 2017, I shifted gears and started my own political consulting firm focused on getting people into office and training people to both run for office and run campaigns. Who is in office matters. It has been an honor to use the insight I’ve gained, the skills I’ve honed, and the knowledge of politics and government I’ve obtained from a lifetime of work to help elect people from traditionally underrepresented communities. Our democracy, our government, is stronger when we have different perspectives, representative of their communities at the table.
Working with people like Council member Crystal Murillo, State Senator James Coleman, and State Representative Iman Jodeh, I’ve learned more about what all of our communities need to thrive. Through city, county, state, and national campaigns, I’ve learned the challenges, deficiencies, failures, and successes, of policies and government at every level. I’ve also learned more about the solutions to our problems and the opportunities we have to make government work for all of us through teamwork and a focus on helping each other.
Upon her election, Rep. Iman Jodeh invited me to join her in the State House to help turn her campaign promises into reality. Coming into the state legislature during COVID, we put our heads down and got to work passing legislation that would address the problems in our state that were making it hard for Coloradans to thrive. In both the 2021 and 2022 sessions, I’ve supported Rep. Jodeh’s work making health care more affordable and reliable, increasing housing security and housing stock, addressing the needs of our neighbors experiencing homelessness, and increasing support to Colorado families struggling financially. We did all of this, and more, while navigating our state’s budget constraints, leveraging federal funds, and working to make the best use of those resources so we can do the most good for the people of Colorado.
Giving my time, effort, and voice to others has been constant throughout my career. I’ve proudly stood up time and time again to advocate for justice and human rights. And I’ve been honored to work with community leaders and organizations to support our teachers, our working families, and our students. And I’m particularly proud that in the last two years when so many families were struggling to put food on the table, I worked with community members, leaders, and small-locally owned businesses to deliver over 5,000 meals on Christmas 2020, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day 2021, Thanksgiving 2021, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day 2022.
The Loves of my Life
The underlying current of my adult life, has been my husband of almost ten years, Nick, and my stepchildren, Oliver and Charlotte, who were just five and two when we met. While it wasn’t in any ‘career’ plan to take on parenting in my mid-twenties in addition to working and going to school, all of the love I had for Nick transferred immediately to Oliver and Charlotte and I knew instantly I would do anything for them. Being one of their parents - their ‘J’ - and having the opportunity to help them become loving, giving, caring adults has been the honor of my life. And through parenting, I’ve gained a much deeper understanding of why the work I do matters so much.
We are proud to have raised our children here in Arapahoe County, where they attended the Littleton Public Schools of Sandburg Elementary, Newton Middle School, and Arapahoe High School. We have enjoyed our parks and open spaces, public libraries, and a community that does its best to look out for one another. We found out more recently that we were only scratching the surface of what it means to lean on the kinds of services the county provides.
I’ve always done this work because helping people is the right thing to do and politics is what I love and how I can best make the world a better place. That was always enough, but the importance of government services became personal to me when tragedy struck our family four years ago. Now, I know first hand how necessary access to mental health support is, more deeply appreciate programs that help fill financial gaps, and understand more fully the long, complicated road of healing from trauma. I know my family is not the only one who has been working through a crisis, and my heart is with all the families in our community like us working to heal and move forward toward a healthy and opportunity-filled future.
Serving you in Arapahoe County
Arapahoe County is facing a myriad of challenges that threaten our future, our security, and our health. I love Arapahoe County and I believe we can overcome those challenges and have sustainable peace - that we can have a safe, vibrant community where our kids get great educations, our young adults and young families have opportunities for great jobs and homeownership, and where we can ease into our retirement years, enjoying our beautiful state and community of people every step along the way. I have already been doing the work of navigating budget constraints, putting federal funds to effective use, and addressing Coloradans’ struggles as we work toward that future and I am ready to serve you as your next Arapahoe County Commissioner for District 2.
