Biography

Jess was born and raised on a dairy farm in Pearsonville, New Brunswick . When she was 16, Jess started working in child care as a summer job.  It didn’t take long to know that working with children was what she wanted to pursue! After graduating from High School, she moved to Charlottetown, PEI where she attended the Early Childhood Care Education program at Holland College. During her studies, Jess had the opportunity to work in various childcare settings such as preschool, kindergarten, after-school and family resource programs.  After receiving her diploma, Jess went on to compete the Bachelor of Child and Family Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island.  During her degree program, she focused on older children and families and did placements in group homes as well as the adolescent psychiatric unit at the Charlottetown hospital.

After Jess graduated from UPEI, she moved to the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Alberta and made Jasper her home.  While working for a childcare center in Jasper, she fell in love with hiking and enjoyed discovering a new and unique mountain environment that was so different from the farming community she grew up in. 

While living in Alberta, Jess attended Forest School Canada’s Practitioner Course in Bow Valley Provincial Park. With a lot of hard work, Jess became Atlantic Canada’s first certified Practitioner in 2015 and has logged over 13,000 hours of experience working with children and creating incredible outdoor spaces for both children and adults to explore and learn in nature. Working within the Forest School ethos of child centered and emergent learning, Jessica delivers practical and meaningful experiences that will help you support the holistic development of children through practices firmly rooted in nature-based inquiry.

Jess frequently visits her family farm outside of Sussex but now lives in Chipman with her fiancé, Tanner. They enjoy camping, working in the sugar bush, raising alpacas, sheep, and horses together. She also spends a lot of time hiking and exploring with her two border collies, Ritz and Rye.

Jess is proud to be a part of the Tír na nÓg team and part of the movement to get children back outside!