During her junior year of college, Jess worked for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. As she interacted with young girls facing life-threatening illnesses, she discovered that they loved to wear headbands instead of wigs after losing their hair to chemotherapy. Armed with inspiration to do good beyond her internships, she founded Headbands of Hope.

Headbands of Hope creates fun and fashionable headbands. For every headband purchased, one is given to a girl with cancer. Since launching in 2012, HOH has been featured on The Today Show, Vanity Fair, Seventeen Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com and more. Most importantly, tens of thousands of headbands have been donated to girls coast-to-coast fighting cancer.

When not running HOH, Jess is an in-demand public speaker with CAMPUSPEAK. She encourages students to not just be aware of issues, but think of ways to change them.