Director, Community Partnerships
Jess Grant-Domond joins Heron from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBC) where she served as the Senior Community Outreach and Engagement Specialist. In this role, Jess led outreach and partnership strategies to advance affordable housing and economic development initiatives while cultivating cross-sector partnerships. Prior to this, Jess was a Senior Development Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRBB) where she managed statewide economic development initiatives through the place-based Working Places Initiative, with a focus on rural and smaller communities in Vermont and Connecticut. Her work centered on supporting local collaboratives, facilitating community-driven planning processes and strengthening local capacity to advance economic inclusion in historically under-resourced communities. Earlier in her career, Jess held roles in community-based research and program leadership, including serving as a Project Director on a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative focused on community-centered mental health outcomes for African American youth. Jess is a Community Psychologist by training and brings a deep commitment to power-sharing and community partnership in her work. She earned a BS in Global Public Health and Nutrition from New York University and an MA in Community Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.