Jessica Sutherland

Jessica Sutherland was born in a Fairview Park, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. After the death of her father, Jessica attended school in Berea, Ohio, despite enduring frequent bouts of homelessness from 1991 until 1997, when she was removed to foster care. Jessica went on to get her BA in Mass Communication from Cleveland State University in 2006, where she was a Division I athlete, and received her MFA in Writing for Screen and Television from the University of Southern California in 2010. While working as a producer for Yahoo! Studios in 2013, Jessica created the viral crowd funding campaign #HomelessToHoward, attracting global attention and lots of media attention. Since then, Jessica has focused on her philanthropic efforts, launching the nonprofit Homeless to Higher Ed with James Ward. She also continues to work in television production, and lives in Studio City, California.