About Jessica

Jessica Kiessel has spent more than 25 years in nonprofits and philanthropy, in the US and internationally, leading programs, research, strategy, and learning. Most recently she was Senior Director of Learning, Impact, and Strategy at Omidyar Network. There she served on the interim executive team, chaired the investment committee, and helped the organization become one that learns as it goes. Before that she led strategy work at PATH and was Chief Program Officer at Innovations for Poverty Action, after growing IPA’s Ghana office. Her roots are in community organizing, outdoor education, and two years as a Peace Corps teacher in Samoa.

Through all of it, Jessica has returned to the same question: how can people work together in ways that are in line with what they’re trying to change? She is at her best when the work is ambiguous, helping people find shared footing, learn together, and decide what’s next. She is known as an inclusive leader, who brings people together and makes it feel safer to experiment, make mistakes, and learn. She tries to model that herself, including by naming her own mistakes.

Since 2023, she has accompanied ten philanthropic and nonprofit clients across the US. She is an Advanced Practitioner in Emergent Learning and a certified Growth Edge Coach, and she holds an MPA from NYU and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Kalamazoo College. She founded (re)Patterning Labs and hosts patternmaking.org, a community and magazine exploring the patterns of our lives through art and writing.