Jessica Kiessel

Jessica Kiessel is the former Senior Director of Learning & Impact as part of the Strategy Group at the Omidyar Network.  Prior to that, she worked as the Deputy Director of Strategy and Learning at PATH, an international non-profit global health organization based in Seattle.  She was also the Global Chief Program Officer at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). In this role, Jessica was responsible for overseeing the fulfillment of IPA’s strategic plan and provided management oversight to all of IPA’s country programs and strategic initiatives. Previously, Jessica was the IPA Ghana Country Director, where she directed the office during a period of significant growth and oversaw approximately 20 rigorous impact evaluations in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, education, finance and health. She also led scale up work related to agricultural insurance in Ghana. 

Before joining IPA, Jessica supported USAID education projects in Egypt, Zambia, Namibia and Pakistan for the American Institutes for Research. Jessica served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa and holds a Masters of Public Administration from New York University and a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology from Kalamazoo College.