About Jessy
[Pronouns: he/ she / siya ]

As an Associate Project Director for our public training program, Jessy supports program participants in having an accessible, fulfilling learning experience with CompassPoint, fostering community connections and linking folks with the information and resources they need. Jessy also plays a key role supporting our peer networks, helping members connect with each other.

A child of blue-collar Pilipinx-Japanese-Chinese immigrants, and born and raised in the Bay Area (707 and 510!), Jessy is a genderfull community builder, writer, and future ancestor who moves with courageous compassion. 

Experienced in mindfulness, bodywork, and various movement modalities, Jessy has held space for queer, trans, gender-diverse, disabled, and neurodivergent people of all ages. A co-founder of Dharma in Motion at East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC), Jessy completed his Practice in Transformative Action Program in 2016 and recently graduated from EBMC’s 2-year Spiritual Teacher & Leadership Program. Jessy has also offered trauma-informed mindful movement and meditation circles centering the needs of children, seniors, and incarcerated individuals.

A former “gifted” kid, high school dropout, and first-generation college graduate, Jessy is passionate about Disability Justice, intergenerational healing, popular pedagogies, and radically inclusive cultures of care.

Before CompassPoint, Jessy was Director of Partnerships at Oakland Peace Center, served as an accessibility consultant for social change organizations, and supported local youth as a case manager, employment counselor, and life skills educator. Jessy also played key roles in bringing participatory budgeting to Vallejo, the first citywide process of its kind in the country. Before all that, at the age of 19, Jessy taught English at public elementary and middle schools in Japan, paving the way for infusing creativity and humanity into work and organizing spaces over the past 17 years.

Jessy is a proud nerd, gamer, and speculative fiction fan who enjoys snuggling cats and giving free reign to her inner child.

Favorite Resources

• East Bay Meditation Center
   
• Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana

• What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo

• Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses
   
• Bending Toward Justice: Avatar the Last Airbender for the Global Majority