Skip to main content
Guest Name
Jessica Laycock
Guest Occupation
Public Affairs Practitioner and Political Strategist
Guest Biography

I am a civically-impassioned public policy and public affairs practitioner and political strategist and analyst that aspires to be a lobbyist, work on political campaigns, work for legislators and ultimately run for office myself.

I am a 25 years old American citizen. I was born and raised in the Castro district of San Francisco, California, epicenter for the LGBT civil rights movement. From a very young age, I was exposed to a vastly diverse society. I began my academic career at a bilingual public elementary school called Alvarado and to this day, am completely fluent in Spanish. I was in part raised by a Peruvian babysitter who taught me Spanish at a very young age and enabled me to be the bilingual and multicultural individual I am today.

I developed an interest in law, government and politics during high school after seeing The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin’s television series. I excelled in my civics course that year, winning an honors award, and from then on I was completely hooked on public service. I went on to college and graduated from Whittier College in Southern California with a BA in both Political Science and Spanish, after completing my final semester abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After college, I moved to Washington D.C. to complete an internship with the International Conservation Caucus Foundation and from then I moved to Central New York and matriculated into the Public Diplomacy program at Syracuse University, which will earn me a MS in Public Relations and a MA in International Relations upon graduating in May of 2017.

Over the past summer, I completed a communications internship with the Human Rights Watch in Brussels, Belgium. I have served as a Legislative & Public Policy Intern for U.S. Senator of DC Paul Strauss. I am currently working as a lobbyist for Mintwood Strategies. I aspire to be a full time lobbyist, work on political campaigns and ultimately run for office as a liberal progressive myself.