Jessica Shayne Lipaz
MA Philosophy and Education
Jess is an educator and writer from Los Angeles. She currently resides in the Elysian Valley, where she enjoys biking along the river path and tending to her garden.
​As an educator, her teaching pedagogy is arts-based, exploratory, and rooted in identity development. She received an MA in Philosophy and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2023, where she was a fellow with the Media and Social Change Lab. In this fellowship, she developed and facilitated a media-making curriculum focused on justice and personal identity for four fifth grade classes. Her MA thesis entitled, Preparing to Teach: Reflections on discomfort and the power of the erotic for self-actualization, highlighted the importance of teacher self-actualization for honoring the multitudes of lived-experiences in the classroom.
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As a writer, Jess weaves memoir with philosophy, combining her commitment to self-reflection with larger questions about human interaction and relations. She enjoys writing creative non-fiction essays and is working on a cohesive memoir about sexuality. Driven by social contact, she is interested in making her writing feel more three dimensional, which inspired her to play with documentary as a form. She is in the process of editing a film she shot about the open mic community in Silverlake.
Currently, Jess works as a Well-Being Education Specialist for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. In collaboration with the Department of Public Health, she and her cohort of educators serve as mental health first aid responders in public high schools, connecting students with resources and teaching curriculum about mental health, sexual health, healthy relationships, and substance use.
