Jessica Rose

Jessica is an alumni from the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. Her background includes over a decade working abroad as a photographer and photojournalist (jessicamrose.com), including documentary filmmaking and blog writing for national and international nonprofits. She spent five years living in various parts of Thailand learning the language, studying local culture/ religion, and using photography to explore the life and traditions of indigenous peoples adjusting to globalization. Her passion for the ocean eventually took her to the island of Cozumel, Mexico where she worked as an underwater photographer and divemaster on the second largest coral reef in the world. Seeing degradation and destruction spread across the Mesoamerican reef, Jessica got involved in coral restoration with local biologists and helped organize the first March for the Ocean as part of her involvement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG14: Life Below Water). It was her work here that inspired Jessica to pursue a career in environmental justice and community outreach. She is using her academic career to build upon the community-based, collaborative work she has done abroad and to apply it to environmental justice work involving Indigenous and First Nation communities in the PNW.  Jessica has been project coordinator for the digital storytelling capstone project Communicating Tribal Rights and Forwarding Environmental Justice with Local Coast Salish People since April 2021. She was also awarded the FLAS Fellowship 2021-22 for the First Nation language, Nuu-chah-nulth. Jessica holds a BFA in photography (19th Century photo processes) from Arizona State University.