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My name is Jesse.
Half the year, I am a sailor. I sail across the world on merchant vessels as a junior rating in the Engine Department, cleaning vital equipment and fixing minor breakdowns.
The rest of my time I spend pursuing my two greatest passions: photography and writing. I've been published in The Forward, Haaretz, The Times of San Diego, and CalMatters. I also ran the news department of the Sacramento, California area based KDVS 90.3FM, and recently co-produced the podcast Forgotten in America (Забытые в Америке) for Studio Tolk.
I spent several years out of college working in political communications, policy creation, and legal advocacy in California and New York City. In 2021 I moved to South Texas to work as a refugee case manager. Resettling the Afghan, Venezuelan, and Ukrainian diasporas into the San Antonio area was among the most fulfilling jobs in my life. But a wanderlust called me away from the office (the Trump administration was going to cancel all my program's funding) so I leaped over to the maritime industry. I picked up a love-hate hobby working on old cars a few years ago, which translated naturally to the oil tankers and cargo ships I now call home for half the year.
In my free time, I roam the West and the South in my beater trucks, vans, and cars taking photos of everything I can. When I'm not desperately fixing those trucks by the side of the road, I like to hike and camp in the gullies, valleys, hollows, swamps and plains running down the middle of America. I am eagerly obsessed with the histories, lives, and stories of people both rural and urban living to the left of the I-35 corridor, and intend to spend as much time as I can documenting them and their lands.
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A Record of My Attainments
Employment —
2024 - Present
Merchant Marine, Engine Department, Seafarers International Union. Working as a General Utility Deck and Engine member on oil tankers and cargo ships through the Seafarer International Union's Unlicensed Apprentice Program.
2022 - 2024
Refugee Case Manager, Global Refuge. Built two San Antonio-area refugee assistance programs from the ground up, assisting Ukrainian, Afghan, Venezuelan, Guatemalan, Kenyan, and Haitian refugees with housing, basic needs, employment, and cultural integration.
2021 - 2022
Communications Specialist, T'ruah. Ran social media, created graphics, managed website, and wrote and edited press releases for major Jewish human rights non-profit.
2021 - 2022
Legal Writer Contractor, Corey, Luzaich, de Ghetaldi, & Riddle LLP. Contacted clients, used thousands of pages of legal documents to write emotionally and legally compelling narratives for Camp and North Bay Fire victims to support claims for the PG&E Fire Victims Trust, stemming from one of the largest legal cases in American history.
2018 - 2021
News Director, Editor, & Journalist, KDVS 90.3FM/The Cycle News Hour. Managed a staff of five journalists reporting on local, state, national, and international news for the Sacramento, California radio market in weekly, episodic news radio series. Reported extensively locally and in conjunction with international media organizations on breaking news stores.
Older —
Communications Director, ASUCD Office of the External Affairs Vice-President.
Sacramento-Area FundtheUC Campaign Director, University of California Student Association.
Director of Media and Public Relations, Simone Pass Tucker for Falls Church City Council Campaign.
Editor & Managing Boardmember, The Aggie Transcript.
Photojournalist/Writer, The California Aggie.
Advisory Committee Member, UC Davis Global Learning Hub.
Lead Intern & Archive Digitization Volunteer, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Subjects to Change Program.
Education —
I graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2021, with a major in History, and minors in Middle East/South Asia Studies and Public Health Sciences. My history education overwhelmingly focused on the ancient through medieval periods of the Arab World and Central Asia, with an emphasis on the economic development of the area spanning from Bukhara to Delhi. I started my Public Health Minor just before the pandemic, so watching a lot of the principles of epidemiology and public health management come to mass fruition was fascinating as I finished that in 2020-2021.
Those experiences led me to an invested public and personal interest in emergency management, and over the last few years I've taken several courses with the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, and the FBI on responding to natural and man-made disasters, with an emphasis on rural regions and the agriculture industry.
I also spent four months in the beginning of 2025 at the Seafarers' Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship learning seafaring, firefighting, the mechanics of heavy industrial machinery, and emergency response procedures as part of the SIU Unlicensed Apprenticeship Program, which I am due to finish in early 2026.
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