As an established entrepreneur, Jessica has led the development of businesses from the ground up coming up with ideas and turning them into profitable businesses for the last 10 years. Jessica has the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage business ventures along with any of its risks in order to help small companies and organizations make a profit. Her passion in entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses in urban communities because it creates, builds, and expand economic growth in grossly underrepresented areas.

Dr. Griffen’s focal point is to build awareness and unique capabilities in the marketplace through small emerging companies and organizations while developing and maintaining relationships with current and past clients. Jessica is a leading advocate for small companies and organizations. Her vision is to enrich the spirit and performance of small companies and organizations to positively impact economic growth and development in urban communities across underrepresented populations. Jessica finds her work rewarding and fulfilling.

Prior to establishing The Urban Development Center, Incorporated and The Soft Skills Training Institute of Florida with her business partner, Jessica spent fifteen years in corporate America as a leader in the areas of business development, project management, systems development, business area analysis, business process reengineering, configuration management, and risk management. She worked for Digital Equipment Corporation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, KPMG Consulting, and PricewaterhouseCoopers where she held leading roles as a business developer, systems developer, senior consultant systems development manager, global risk management solutions manager, and national training manager.

In 2011, Jessica co-developed Higher Heights Escambia (HHE), a capacity building program for under- represented communities, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through Catholic Charities. HHE continues to serve as a legacy program promoting, training and educating communities. Please see www.higherheightsescambia.com. Under The UDC Jessica is the co-developer of Positive Transitions, a program dedicated to re-entry, vocational rehabilitation, pre-trial diversion and probation training services. Jessica co-developed ngenuaty™, a business development training platform dedicated to entrepreneurship innovation in urban communities. Please seehttp://www.theudc.org, www.positivetranstions.com and http://www.positivetransitions.us/ngenuaty–1.html for more information.