Striving to fulfill a calling to help people, Jessica received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology. Learning from an early age that she had a propensity for organizing, and a sincere drive to positively impact other’s lives, she felt compelled to leave her position in marketing for a position in healthcare.

Joining the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2009, Jessica first began her role with Vanderbilt Medical Group in the Neurosciences Institute, with a focus on the Neurodiagnostics Lab and Neurology Clinics. Recognized by leadership for her dedication and team approach, her role expanded to supporting all areas of the Neurosciences Institute as well as the Interventional Pain and Pain Management Clinics.

In 2014, she was provided with the opportunity to develop a new program for the NIH Stroke Network Regional Coordinating Center at Vanderbilt. This network encompassed 25 regional centers, the nation’s top ranking hospitals, handpicked by NIH to promote more efficient and streamlined processes for clinical trial facilitation. Recognizing that she could leverage her past marketing experience with her love for organization and people, she didn’t hesitate to accept the new challenge. Her role quickly expanded to overseeing nearly thirty cerebrovascular clinical trials, and a research team dedicated to providing quality research for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.

Through the direction of Bree Burks, the Cerebrovascular Clinical Research Office expanded and began to provide more comprehensive support to the medical center’s surgical and collaborating departments. Supporting more than 300 faculty, the Surgical Core of Research Resources strived to support investigators in the global advancement of medical therapies for patients through quality, impactful clinical and translational research.

Recently appointed as the Program Director for the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center, Jessica is energized by the opportunity to continue to encourage investigator’s ideas in new and innovative approaches. Privileged to support and direct the Local Support Services, as well as the Multicenter Support Services, Jessica and her team strive to be an advocate for investigators providing high quality, tailored resources for any platform.