About
Author bio: I'm a life-long Californian who's been to a third of the countries in the Middle East and has put tens of thousands of miles on my bright yellow Honda Fit solo-camping throughout the Mountain West. In Spring 2018, my natural history essay 'Colusa County' was published in the Oakland Review, in Summer 2018 my misandrist mermaid poem 'Instructions to a Newly Dead Mermaid' was published in the Hashtag Queer anthology and in fall 2018 my short story 'To Free a Genie' will be published in Geek Out. In Summer 2019, seven of my poems will be including in the upcoming Imagoes anthology.
General bio: Jessica Dickinson Goodman bridges the worlds of technology and politics, bringing the best of both to what she does. She seeks to empower amazing women, whether serving as a scheduler for now-US Senator Kamala Harris or as an Impact Coach for #TeamPalestine in the US State Department’s 2017 and 2018 Techwomen programs.
Jessica’s first job out of college was running national online communications in Washington DC for the largest anti-human trafficking NGO serving survivors of all forms of trafficking. There, she built tools to track traffickers, raised 500K/yr online, ran dozens of successful advocacy campaigns, and in her evenings, taught self-defense to clients who heard she had gotten her black belt when she was 17.
In 2018 inspired by #TeamPalestine Techwomen from 2017, she built up her technical skills taking Java, Python, and C++ simultaneously and was named one of Foothill College’s Top STEM students. Jessica graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She was a Fifth Year Scholar at Carnegie Melon which allowed her to continue her studies tuition free. During that time she spent time in Doha Qatar and still practices her Arabic daily. She graduated with a B.S in Ethics, History and Public Policy with a minor in vocal performance.
She is Chair of San Jose Human Services Commission, overseeing human rights policy for the one million person city, and was recently elected Noble Grand of the Silicon Valley Odd Fellows — she is the youngest woman to be elected to that position in the orders 150 year history. She recently accepted a role as a Technology Fellow with a Harvard University-affiliated think tank, Sense and Sustainability, focused on connecting research-tested solutions to climate change to local and national governments.
Featured Work
"To Free a Genie"
"The lithe, blue-skinned genie swooped out of the lamp and sprawled with a thump at Marta Freeman's feet, disturbing the dust in the backroom of her New Orleans antique shop. Marta was in her mid-60s, wearing a long-sleeved mauve muumuu and her Afro-Caribbean hair in tight, dark cornrows. Behind her was a wall of wooden crates stamped in a dozen languages, jars and vases of funeral flowers stuffed between them -- chrysanthemums, magnolias, and delicate nandina -- their blossoms falling, spilled-water staining the condolence cards layered beneath them. "
Other Works
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“Blue Angels” (Creative Non-Fiction)
2019
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“The Garden of Arden" (Sonnet)
2018
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“The Mountains We Avoid” (Poem)
2018
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Instructions to a Newly Dead Merwoman (Poem)
2018
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Colusa County (Essay)
2018
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"Biking in the Rain" (Essay)
2010
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“High School Politics” (Essay)
2006
Press and Media Mentions
- "Lifting as You Climb - Women, Tech, & Politics Saving the World with Jessica Dickinson Goodman - She’s a black belt, Carnegie Mellon alum, and one of my personal heroes. Jessica Dickinson Goodman is a multi-hyphenate who builds tools to power the movement for social justice. We discuss how to build social capital, how to lend your privilege to help bring others up, her extensive work in the Middle East, and what it was like working for Senator Kamala Harris up close."
- "Lagos – The United States (U.S.) has urged nations, which are aiming for advancement and economic success to not only adopt a positive and broad approach to science education, but also broaden women’s opportunities and access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) studies."
- "At this very moment there are at least 30 million humans being trafficked around in the world — more than during the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, according to the Not For Sale Campaign. An average slave in the American South in 1850 cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money; today a sex slave costs an average of $90, according to the Free the Slaves project."
- "Jessica Dickinson Goodman, a Carnegie Mellon University student, has helped to identify 15 massage parlors in the city and seven in the suburbs that she believes are fronts for brothels that may be employing sex slaves. Her findings are based largely on customers' graphic Internet postings about the business and their employees."
- "A 16-member delegation of senior women technology executives and professionals from Silicon Valley, California, visited Nigeria as part of the TechWomen programme to mentor young Nigerian women working in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)."
- "Senior philosophy major Jessica Dickinson Goodman, who also attended the IMPAQT program, said, “Carnegie Mellon really offers world-class education. The past years have seen remarkable outcomes of CMU-Q’s education in Qatar.” While great accomplishments serve as an effective promotion of CMU-Q, the admissions office has also spent a lot of time and energy encouraging the top students in the region to apply to CMU-Q."
- "After Charlottesville, Va., erupted in violence during a white supremacist rally in August, Jessica Dickinson Goodman ’07 donned her Captain America shirt, made a sign that read “You Lost in 1865, You Lost in 1945, You Will Lose in 2017” and attended a solidarity event at San Jose City Hall."
- "Jessica Dickinson Goodman, of San Jose, holds a " You Lost in 1865, You Lost in 1945, You will Lose in 2017 " sign during a protest at City Hall in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, August 13, 2017. Indivisible East San Jose gathered to protest in response to this weekend's violence during the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group) "
- "Harker alumna Jessica Dickinson Goodman ‘07, who has made a career of helping others, was sworn in as City of San Jose Human Services Commissioner for District 2 on Jan. 16."