Jessica Prody

Jessica Prody, PhD is an educator and communicator who is deeply committed to educational access, social justice, community-building, and empathy. She first learned about Literacy Minnesota from her Minneapolis College students, many of whom credit Open Door as an essential part of their educational journey. 

She is currently the Interim Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Minneapolis College and teaches part-time in the college's Transformation and Reentry through Education and Community (TREC) program at Stillwater Correctional Facility. Previously, she was the Director of Communications at Twin Cities PBS and held positions at St. Lawrence University as Associate Professor and Director of the Sustainability Program. She has published in multiple academic journals and collections and is certified as an Intergroup Dialogue Facilitator, leading campus and community dialogues to facilitate conversations about and across identity differences. In her personal life, Jessica enjoys walking her three dogs with her husband, gardening, spending time in the pottery studio, reading copious amounts of fiction, and pontooning on the Mississippi River with her family. She holds a BA in Communication Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College and a PhD in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Environmental Rhetoric and Feminist Media Studies from the University of Minnesota.