Jessie was born and raised in San Diego, California by two loving parents originally from Mexico City and Tlaxcala, México. From an early age, her parents supported her love for learning and instilled the idea of obtaining a postsecondary education. Thanks to the support of her family and multiple educators across her K-12 public education journey, Jessie became the first in her family to obtain a college degree.
Obtaining a higher education was transformative for Jessie and her immediate family. Jessie’s undergraduate education provided the opportunity for her to critically examine her journey to higher education as a first-generation college student and envision a future where all historically minoritized populations are afforded the opportunity to attend and succeed in obtaining a postsecondary education.
Jessie’s professional commitment to enacting systems-level change to ensure all historically minoritized students are provided postsecondary opportunities has led her to serve in various advocacy roles. Before joining the Campaign for College Opportunity, Jessie served as a Legislative Analyst for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Prior to her time at the Chancellor’s Office, Jessie was a senior policy analyst for The Education Trust, advocating for federal and state policies to advance college access and success for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and undocumented students. Jessie also served as the Institutional Practices Manager at Excelencia in Education, where she led the only national effort to identify and promote evidence-based practices accelerating Latino student success in higher education.
Jessie holds a B.A. from UCLA in Political Science and Chicanx Studies with a minor in Education Studies.
Your role in one sentence: My role is to ensure the enactment of policy that advances postsecondary opportunities for historically minoritized populations in California by closely collaborating with members of the California State Legislature and other higher education advocacy organizations in the state.
When I am not at work helping students get to and succeed in college I am… dancing, running, or making new playlists.
If not higher education, then what cause? If not higher education, I would be fighting for immigrant rights and protections.