TheBridge profile: Jessica Presley

Name: Jessica Presley

Current city: Washington, DC

Current job: Director of Digital Strategy - US Senate & Co-founder of the Democratic Digital Communications Staff Association

Past job: Digital Communications Director - US House

Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? Jacob’s Coffee House on D NE

Q. Describe one way a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. I have worked on Congressional, Senatorial, Gubernatorial, and Presidential campaigns all across the country. Asking is an art form. Making recruitment calls as a field organizer removed the fear and shame of asking something from a total stranger. When building a coalition, you will be told “no” more times than you can count. The question is whether you will keep going or give up. As TR says, “nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.”

Q. Job advice in three words? Persistence is omnipotent.

Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between politics and tech? It is exciting to work for Congress during a time when technology and innovation are revolutionizing what Government looks like in the 21st century. Technology builds bridges across party lines; it creates friendships in the most unlikely of places; and it has the possibility to change the world. #MGT #FITARA #TMF

Q: Most underrated virtue in an employee? Curiosity and the willingness to learn. 

Q: Best advice you've received? What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

Q: Favorite under the radar company? Hungry Harvest

Q: Living person you admire? Hands down – the 14th Dalai Lama.

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