Jessica Dickinson Goodman bridges the worlds of technology and politics. Starting with an internship at 15 with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, continuing through her B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University, followed by an internship at Harvard Law School’s Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, Jessica works to bring the best of both worlds to what she does.
Jessica’s first job out of college was running national online communications in DC for the largest anti-human trafficking NGO in the US serving survivors of all forms of trafficking. There, she built tools to track traffickers, ran dozens of successful advocacy campaigns, raised $500K/yr online, and taught self-defense to clients who heard she had gotten her black belt when she was 17.
After a stint staffing the chair of the Washington state House Appropriations Committee, Jessica served as a scheduler for now-U.S. Vice President Kamala D. Harris from 2015-2017, managing high-profile relationships, complex security and logistical issues, and supporting her team during the transition to the U.S. Senate. She leverages those skills as an Impact Coach in the U.S. State Department-funded TechWomen program, helping technical leaders from the Middle East, Africa, Central, and South Asia to design powerful social interventions for their communities.
Inspired by the team she mentored through the US State Department’s TechWomen program, she built up her technical skills taking Java, Python, and C++ simultaneously and was named one of Foothill College’s Top STEM students. She returned to Foothill in 2021, teaching a Social Justice and Technology class to students from communities underrepresented in STEM.
Today, Jessica serves as Board President of the Internet Society of the San Francisco Bay Area, supporting her team’s exceptional work on tech policy education and helping underserved communities’ get better access to the Internet; she is one of the youngest women ever elected to run an Odd Fellows lodge in the order’s 150 year history; on her weekends, she manages a community garden and California native plant garden in South San José.
Jessica graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She was a Fifth Year Scholar at Carnegie Melon which allowed her to continue her studies tuition free. She graduated with a B.S in Ethics, History and Public Policy with a minor in vocal performance. She still practices her Arabic daily.