Jess has 15 years of experience planning, producing, executing and promoting events including international conferences, community fundraisers, soirées, live cooking competitions, concerts, festivals, educational seminars, panel discussions, private supper clubs and other reasons to celebrate and bring a unique audience together.

She is the co-founder of Vida Vegan Con (2009-2015), an award-winning international vegan blogging & social media conference which took place in both Portland, OR and Austin, TX, as well as Heartichoke Supper Club, a private pop-up series (2010-2013). She serves as Executive Director of Vegan Iron Chef, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded 2010 in Portland, OR, with a history of both large and small-scale culinary competitions, community cook-offs, fundraisers, and restaurant partnerships. In 2017, Vegan Iron Chef debuted "Mystery Ingredient", a vegan podcast series that shares real, behind-the-scene conversations with the people creating, eating, and talking about the food we eat — with the goal of highlighting cruelty-free cuisine as empowering, inspiring, and exciting. The podcast is available on both Itunes and Soundcloud.

Jess has worked as the Conference Director of "COMCAP", the national community capital conference, since its inception in 2015, which is co-hosted by the National Coalition for Community (NC3) and Hatch Innovation,. Jess currently serves as the Director of Conferences & Events for NC3, and formerly served as the Director of Events & Culinary Happenings for Hatch Innovation and Hatch Oregon from 2015-2018.

In what feels like a past life, Jess was the author of the VegNews award-winning "Get Sconed!" food blog, (founded 2004) and co-founder of "Stumptown Vegans", one of the earliest restaurant review blogs on the internet (2007-2011).

She spends her free time talking to her cats (Huxley & Zelda), placing library holds, obsessing over what's for dinner, thinking about curry, and cultivating a community garden plot with her wife.

You can catch Jess on Instagram as @jdfunks and @getsconed on Twitter.



Jess is availalbe for from-scratch event conception, coordination and digital or in-person workshops and talks.