Our Staff - Leadership Team

Jess is the director of nursing at Casa Palmera. Prior to that, Jess was employed at the University of California-San Diego as the apheresis nurse manager for four years. As one of the largest outpatient apheresis procedural units in the United States, Jess led the growth of the program during COVID-19 within not only therapeutics, but also for stem cell collections and, study/trial stem cell collections. Jess also was able to work within the quality improvement, infection control, safety rounding, policy development, state and private inspections related to license requirements and overall nursing, sitting as charge RN as needed. 

Before UCSD, Jess was the community health director for Ho-Chunk Nation, a federally recognized Native American tribe in Wisconsin. There, Jess oversaw programs such as home health care nursing, dietitian services, food distribution, community health representatives and WIC. Jess also represented the tribe at many long-term care meetings with the governor’s office and Wisconsin Department of Health. 

Jess is married to his wife Tracie, and they have three children: Kaiya, Sophia and Jasper. On his free time, Jess is an avid sports fans and enjoys baseball in which he actively coaches and teaches lessons. Jess is also a Navy veteran, serving on active duty following September 11th until honorably discharged in 2008.