Community, dance and chocolate are Jessie’s sustenance.
During her undergraduate degree she studied and earned a B.A. in psychology, which led to a career in disability service provision with the Alberta government. Here, she realized that her true passions were things like research and strategic development in human and health services. She went on to pursue an M.A. in Communication and Culture. It was here that she felt like she began to learn a completely new language. Everything she thought she knew about research, evidence, and knowledge itself was challenged. Although she was resistant to it initially, she now considers herself incredibly lucky to have been exposed to non-colonial ways of knowing.
Jessie currently works in strategic leadership in health promotion with Alberta Health Services, where she is committed to maintaining health equity in the initiatives that she is involved in planning, evaluating and promoting. She enjoys and is committed to her work at AHS and wishes to develop her leadership and community engagement skills through programs like NextUp.
Dance is an integral part of Jessie’s wellbeing; she has been dancing for most of her life. Her love of dance inspired her to work with her high school teaching and administration staff as well as community members to prioritize dance and the arts in her school. She has also taught dance to members of her community, high school dance students, and to elementary students through the DARE Arts program.
Jessie is lucky enough to eat a small piece of chocolate every day.