Born in Down East, Maine, Jessie spent her first several years being chased around the backyard by the family’s chicken flock and attending school in a two-room schoolhouse. As the middle child, she honed her negotiation skills early and is still considered the family’s “straight talk express” (presumably a compliment). Her favorite childhood memories include filming make-believe stories with her siblings on a borrowed VHS camera and summer trips to her grandparents’ “camp” in Poland Spring (yes, like the water).
Though she hails from a family of educators, it was presumed Jessie would become a therapist (such a good listener!). In high school, she was a music and theater nerd, and pursued classical vocal training through college. She began her collegiate career at NYU and finished at The Johns Hopkins University where she graduated with departmental honors in Creative Writing.
Jessie moved back to New York and shortly landed her first field gig as Co-Producer for Court TV’s hit true crime series, Psychic Detectives, followed by stints at ABC News Productions (Children of Waco, Field Producer), PBS (Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports, Associate Producer), and TLC (Cover Shot, Associate Producer), before she settled at Lucky Duck Productions and Nickelodeon’s multiple Emmy-winning news magazine series for kids, Nick News with Linda Ellerbee (Producer). It was there that Jessie discovered her true passion – helping give kids a voice. She relished the challenge of producing segments featuring kids living in foster care, kids of undocumented parents, and kids living with HIV – and quickly earned a reputation for the compassionate and sensitive way in which she spoke to kids (often told that she “didn’t sound like an adult,” which she took as a high compliment). During her six years on the series, Jessie and her team received two Primetime Emmy Awards, the National Gracie Award, two PRISM Awards (for the depiction of mental illness and substance abuse issues in television), and the 2013 NAMIC Vision Award (celebrating the depiction of ethnic and cultural diversity).
After stints on projects for Food Network (Chopped, Casting Producer), History (The Gillon Project, Producer), Bravo (2015 Emmy-winning series The Singles Project, Post Producer), REELZ (The Security Brief, Producer), VH1 (Mob Wives, Post Producer), truTV (truInside: The Comedy Cellar, Story Producer), WE tv (Driven to Love, Story Producer), Travel Channel (Island Explorers, Senior Story Producer), National Geographic (Explorer, Story Producer), MTV (Promposal, Supervising Post Producer), and TLC (Unexpected, Supervising Post Producer), in 2018 Jessie rose to Co-Executive Producer on Animal Planet’s hit follow-doc series, The Zoo. She went on to Executive Produce The Zoo S5, two seasons of spin-off The Zoo: San Diego, and show run two seasons of The Aquarium (Animal Planet’s highest-rated freshman series of 2019) – all told, producing nearly 100 hours between the 3 series. In 2022, she returned to her favorite subject – kids – heading up post as Executive Producer for the Disney+/Nat Geo docuseries, Science Fair: The Series, inspired by the Emmy award-winning feature documentary.
Jessie is a member of the Producers Guild of America, New York Women in Film and Television, and was a member of the Nantucket Film Festival Screenplay Competition Reading Committee for five years.
When she’s not chasing around her two-year-old son, Jessie enjoys mentoring up-and-coming television producers and is an avid yogi. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Brett; her son; and a lovable hound mix, Fiona. Every summer they all still visit the camp in Poland Spring. It’s the best water.