Jess is currently the GM of the Amazon Internet Registry at AWS. Previously she was the first female CTO of a major media organization, Axios, and co-founder and CTO at Optoro, which helps top-tier retailers nationwide handle their returned and excess goods. Jess has a proven track record of finding the biggest barriers to growth and reorganizing companies to overcome them.
Jess is passionate about DEI, creating programs to increase diversity and driving results even through senior leadership. Her focus on community engagement has led her to build and grow the DCTech Slack to 11,000 members, and she continues to host DC-area meetups including the Joy of Programming meetup.
Outside of the tech world Jess is a singer-songwriter, an improviser, a gamer, a mom, and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.