Jess joined NSC in February 2026 on secondment from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), where she provided policy advice and support to Prime Ministerial and Government decision making and engagements on resilience, crisis management, national security, and AUKUS issues. At PM&C, she also led an interagency taskforce to comprehensively reform the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework (AGCMF) in 2024.

Jess has held a range of crisis management roles across the Australian Government, spanning the crisis preparedness, response, and recovery domains. In Emergency Management Australia (Department of Home Affairs) she oversaw initiatives to build national preparedness for catastrophic crisis, championed an Australian Government approach to embed strategic foresight in crisis planning and administered disaster recovery funding programs. In the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and the Department of Health she drove preparedness, including through reforms to national crisis response arrangements and capabilities.

Jess holds a Master of Emergency Management with Distinction, an Advanced Diploma of Public Safety (Emergency Management), and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Biology).