About

Jess is a compassionate leader whose talents stretch beyond being an information conduit. Her ability to relate to others and tailor teaching needs is a force multiplier that raises teams up as one. Jess is a peer leader whose teams have been high-achieving in product and high-satisfaction as colleagues. Her dedication to individual and team growth is an example for others to follow and a high bar to achieve.

Dr. Jess is what they call a 'unicorn'. She has the rare skillset of strength in both right-brain and left-brain thinking. Her logical knowledge and experiences are obvious given her technical skillset. But she can also communicate her knowledge to others in a way that they understand. People truly show expertise when they can communicate complicated topics simply. Dr. Jess took her time explaining a technical area to me in a way that I could understand. She was gracious, and positive-minded, and made me feel empowered enough to move forward in a new direction. Oftentimes, just the thought of learning new skills can be scary, let alone learning the skill itself. I would highly recommend Dr. Jess as an educator and coach for her abilities to communicate efficiently, her mastery of technological content, and her overall can-do and infectious attitude.

Along with an innate intelligence and keen perception, Jess is an extremely hard worker and conscientious mentor and manager. She always went to bat for her direct reports; worked hard to network above and forge healthy and important relationships; and, above all, is forthrightly honest and inherently approachable. Jess is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about testing and teaching, and it shows. Her writing and presentation skills are excellent, as well.

Jess is an exceptional human being and an effectual manager and colleague who is gifted at uplifting individual contributors and positioning them for professional success while shielding them from the burdens of management. Jess fosters an environment that results in cohesive teams that readily deliver solutions of the highest quality. She is equally adept at mentoring colleagues to become their best selves in an organization.

I had the pleasure of working with Jess at HashiCorp for more than a year. I was the team lead and she was our engineering manager. We inherited a team with a loose structure that had symptoms of engineers feeling isolated on their own projects, status updates and expected handoffs were hard to come by, and overall a talented a great team, but team cohesion could improve. Jess and I immediately clicked on how we wanted things to change and how we would try implementing change without overloading or being heavy handed. We were able to greatly improve the overall team cohesion and morale, as well as improve the outward communication of the team and confidence in how we worked and promises we made. Jess prioritizes honesty, openness, straight talk and a sense of humor. She has your back to the end and is appreciate by her peers, her leaders, as well as engineers that report to her. She brings a great background of testing knowledge to help round out a team of engineers and provide a welcome customer and quality angle. She is fantastic manager and I hope to work with her again in the future.

I had the pleasure of working with Jess in her role as Co-Chair and Founder of the Inclusive Access Alliance Employee Resource Group (ERG). Running and leading an ERG is a heavy lift in and of itself but starting an ERG requires strategic thinking, influence, leadership and a genuine passion for making the workplace and workforce more diverse and inclusive. Jess and her Co-Chair built and grew their ERG to what it is today. They created a safe space for employees who identify as having a disability and have done amazing work to normalize the conversation around disability in general. They elevated the visibility of disability all across the company and have created a beautiful partnership with the People Team to create better recruiting and accommodation processes that everyone can benefit from. The reason why this relationship works is due to Jess and her Co-Chair's ability to be incredibly diplomatic while demonstrating integrity, humility and kindness. What they built is not small...for many employees, it's the glue that keeps people at the company and creates a feeling of belonging. I am grateful for all Jess did to leave us 1000x better than she found us and I'm looking forward to seeing the amazing things she builds in the future!

I reported directly to Jess for over 2 years while working at Salesforce.org. She is a great team builder and a strong technical leader who understands what it takes to set others up for success. She always devotes quality time to the development of her team members. She is expert at understanding complex systems, coordinating work, balancing the load across the team. She has a constant desire to improve processes and make workflows more efficient by collaborating with her team. She has been a great coach and mentor to me and I consider myself lucky to have worked with Jess, and I can’t recommend her more highly.

Dr.Jess and I have worked together to develop the Coding Academy at the Teens College Summer Academy at Queensborough Community College. She has inspired many a coder- and she continues this course throughout the year with many repeat students who want more and learn more as they move forward with their own personal goals. We recently collaborated towards an adult student Web Development course that is a series of classes that will help the adult student create a final portfolio that will be a representation of their work for recruiters. If that wasn’t enough, Dr. Jess will be teaching music to young adults that will create an ensemble for proud parents to listen to! My work with Dr. Jess seems to be that whatever or whomever’s vision we seek to materialize, it gets done. And the best part is seeing the students thrive; we believe in an inclusive setting so there are many definitions of success in our eyes. Thanks Jess!

Jessica is one of the most dedicated and creative professionals I have ever known. She is practical and honest about the challenges in education; but manages to make you feel like you can help solve the world’s problems. Any time you can her Jessica speak or read her work, you should do it.

As someone who was my teacher for 4 years and a great friend for the past 10 years I say this with the highest reccomendation… Jessica inspired me to want to give back to the youth, she worked in a challenging environment and always made time to get to know her students personally and help in any way she can . Even until this day I reach out to her for advice and wisdom and remember the many lessons she taught me. In any endeavor I am sure she will take on the challenge and produce more than expected. She is like myself and never content always looking to improve and grow but not just herself but whoever surrounds her. I am a big believer in the energy you put into the world is the same that you get back and Dr. Ingrassellino’s positive attitude always inspired me.