Jessica Sáenz was homegrown in Colombia, South America, and transplanted to the U.S. by fate and circumstance. They grew up in the rural south, were educated in the northeast, and schooled in life by their experiences as a first generation immigrant living on the east coast.
Prior to this role, Jessica worked as a Career Pathways Project Manager in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department within the Office of Secondary Schools (OSS) where they worked with a portfolio of schools to plan, initiate, and build coherent systems in order to expand college and career pathway opportunities for students in grades 7-12. OSS partners with schools, institutions of higher learning, and the business community to provide support for the execution of aligned advising, the development and effective implementation of college and career pathways, and the development and maintenance of non-traditional settings that support all learners.
Prior to joining Boston Public Schools, this human worked as a Senior Program Manager at Commonwealth Corporation where they played an integral role in the launch of the Career Technical Initiative (CTI) as they supported grants management activities, provided technical assistance, and oversaw the procurement process of 4 million dollars of funding in FY’21 and 15 million dollars of funding in FY’22 to 10+ regional vocational high schools in Massachusetts. CTI provides Massachusetts high school students and adults who are unemployed/underemployed training opportunities to earn industry recognized credentials in the manufacturing and construction trades with connections to viable job prospects at the completion of their training
Jessica earned their BA in Health, Behavior, and Society from the University of Rochester and their MPH in Health Communication and Promotion & Program Design, Implementation and Evaluation from the Boston University School of Public Health (no numbers without stories and no stories without numbers!). They are a coffee lover, tea liker, notebook collector who firmly believes in the power of narrative storytelling, grassroots fundraising (small dollars for big change!), and micro-lending as community-first strategies for social change.