Jessi Riel (she/her) is a Program Manager for the New School of Participatory Change. 

Jessi leads the design and management of the New School and provides partnership to the consulting team in report writing, research, and stakeholder engagement.  

Jessi brings over 15 years of experience in rural education, community development, and research, which informs her skilled development of meaningful, contextually-relevant curricula and expert teaching that builds critical consciousness and critical hope for learners. Jessi holistically supports individuals and communities in their journeys toward health and actualization. She is also a key partner in our organizational development work by designing and conducting assessments and surveys, translating data into actionable visuals and documents, and crafting reports to summarize co-constructed learning in ways that will be highly useful to your organization.

Jessi’s life experiences in rural and marginalized communities and the wisdom she has gained through working in community form the foundation of her theories of change and philosophies. She believes deeply that economic, community, and educational development happen most effectively in concert with each other and that all development must be contextually-situated, community-guided, and adaptive to change. She believes in co-imagining, co-planning, and co-creating regenerative communities and economies that foster community wealth and well-being. In her work, Jessi aims to equip practitioners with the vision-casting and changemaking skills to develop self-sustaining, equitable, participatory, and inclusive development in their spheres.