Jessica Highland currently serves as a Lead Grant Management Specialist at ARPA-E where she contributes to the oversight and management of the agency’s grants and cooperative agreements.

Highland started her federal career at FEMA in 2006, where she managed pre-disaster mitigation grants for the southeastern states comprising FEMA’s Region IV.  Later at the National Institute of Justice (DOJ), she managed a complex portfolio of research grants and cooperative agreements spanning the social, physical, and forensic sciences.  After leaving DOJ, she worked in HUD’s Office of Native American Programs on the Tribal Housing and Urban Development – Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (Tribal HUD-VASH) program.  Most recently as a Lead Grant Management Specialist at the Department of Interior’s Interior Business Center (IBC), she oversaw a complex portfolio of grants for federal clients including DARPA and DOI’s Office of Native Hawaiian Relations. 

Highland received a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from Wells College and later completed the course work for a Master of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Comparative Government and Development at American Public University.