Texas-born Jess lived in the Lone Star state until 5th grade, when her family moved to Monument, Colorado. She still considers herself a Texas girl at heart, but loves living here and considers it home. She graduated from Lewis-Palmer High School and started college in New York at Stony Brook University on a volleyball scholarship. When she suffered an injury, she moved back to Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with a degree in psychology. She then worked in childcare, coached volleyball, and held a position at a residential treatment facility helping teenage boys with troubled pasts. She joined Hope & Home as a home supervisor in 2011.

I thank God for bringing us these children to put in one of our wonderful families where they cannot only be safe, but also be loved and nurtured.

Helping others has always been in Jess’s heart. During both high school and college, she completed many volunteer hours working at the Marian House Soup Kitchen and Drive Smart, a traffic safety program for teens. She also tutored Spanish-speaking students and was involved in Young Life and many other programs.

Of Hope & Home, Jess says, “I love working for a company where my Christian values and beliefs are met with a mission to help others. We have such wonderful foster families who are here to help children in need in our community; it is a blessing and absolute pleasure to serve them.

“I used to be sad every time we got a call to place another child because that meant they had been hurt or neglected,” she notes. “But then I realized there are so many children out there in that situation that aren’t being helped yet, because we haven’t found them. That call means we have found them and we can now help them. So, now every time we get those calls I thank God for bringing us these children to put in one of our wonderful families where they cannot only be safe, but also be loved and nurtured.”