Jess Cheney, LGSW (she/her) has served as the Basic Needs Program and Case Manager at Â鶹ÊÓƵAPK since January 2025. Previously, she has held roles as the Violence Prevention Project Director at Saint Paul College and the Community Education Coordinator at Alexandra House in Blaine. In both these roles she worked closely with the basic needs staff, gaining a deep understanding of the role of safety as a basic need. She was awarded a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, with a focus on macro practice in 2015 and a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Mathematics and French at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa in 2009. As an undergraduate student, she engaged in activism around LGBTQIA+ advocacy, reproductive justice, and sexual health promotion. She studied abroad in Senegal and speaks passable French and very limited Wolof. She has two cats and two kids, loves getting outdoors with her family, and is always up for learning a new craft.
