Jessica Biggs
Member
District 6B
Jessica Biggs began her career in education in 2005, driven by her commitment to ensuring an excellent educational experience for all of Chicago’s young people. Her journey began as an Outreach Coordinator with Alternatives, Inc. at Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) Senn High School. Since that time, Biggs has served as a high school and middle school special education teacher where she focused her work on early literacy development. As she recognized the community-level impact experienced by school leadership, she was inspired to return to CPS in this capacity. Biggs became principal at Burke Elementary School, a neighborhood Pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school in Washington Park, where her leadership centered student, teacher, parent and community voice in the life of the school. Biggs is proud to have partnered with staff and the community to move Burke Elementary from years of probation to Good Standing over the course of her tenure. Today, she leads several community collaboratives through her work with the Southwest Organizing Project. She is the Director of Healthy Southwest and the Southwest System of Care, which seek to build coalitions of healthcare, behavioral health and community-based organizations in partnership with neighborhood schools and community residents serving as peer navigators and public health ambassadors. These community-led collaborations work to reduce the racial life expectancy gap and create more connected and holistic access to care for young people and families on the Southwest side.
For her work, Biggs has been recognized by the Bronzeville Alliance, the Bronzeville Community Action Council, the South East Chicago Commission, Metropolitan Family Services and the Mayor of Chicago under two administrations.
Biggs is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She also holds an Education Master’s in School Leadership from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She is proud to call Bronzeville home where she lives with her husband and 10-year-old daughter, a CPS student.
