Jess (she/her) is a proud first generation Asian American, director and social justice advocate specializing in risky new plays and musicals about America. She has directed and developed work in New York and all over the country at theatres such as Second Stage (On the Evolutionary Function of Shame), Roundabout, MTC, Atlantic, Little Island, Ma-Yi and regionally at Steppenwolf (The Thanksgiving Play), Goodman, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Alliance, La Jolla Playhouse, Williamstown, Berkeley Rep and Woolly Mammoth (There’s Always the Hudson), where she was also a BOLD Resident Director. Jess served as Resident Director on Hamilton Chicago for three years, Artist-In-Residence at the NYCLU (ACLU of New York), Lead Curator for Roundabout’s 2023 Refocus Project, Co-Chair (with Michael Korie) of the Dramatist Guild Foundation’s Musical Theatre Fellows Program, and was a Tony Nominator from 2022-25. She grew up in San Francisco, spent a decade in Chicago after earning her MFA in Directing from Northwestern, and has a nuanced understanding of how micro theatre ecosystems work – or can work – together to advance the form.