Jessica Ardo

Managing Editor, AERA Open
School of Education

December 1, 2014

Joins School of Education as Managing Editor of AERA Open

Jessica Cantley Ardo grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where as a child she enjoyed playing soccer, swimming and reading. She served as an editor of her high school’s yearbook and was active in student government, varsity soccer, and swimming. She graduated from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and was also active in club sports and taught swim lessons at the local YMCA.

Jessica left beautiful North Carolina for Washington, D.C. when she accepted a position at the Advisory Board Company, a syndicated research firm. Desiring to pursue her interests in social work, she next worked for the Children and Family Services Agency of Washington, D.C. and gained valuable experience and knowledge of the factors which contribute to child abuse and neglect, while serving the district’s most vulnerable children and their families.

This experience led her to choose to attend a graduate program in social work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. While obtaining her master’s degree, Jessica completed internships at the University of Maryland School of Law’s Legal Aid Clinic and with the Maryland CASH campaign, a state-wide non-profit working to improve financial literacy and consumer protection. She also worked as a research assistant with a professor at UMB.

Upon graduation, Jessica worked as a Child and Family therapist for Catholic Charities in the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. Her clients included mostly high school aged youth, and all were state welfare recipients.

Jessica was offered the opportunity to work as Research Coordinator on a federally funded grant for a program in Baltimore called Trauma Adapted Family Connections and gladly accepted.  She worked here until she and her husband moved to Pasadena, California for his post-doctoral studies.

Prior to joining UC Irvine, Jessica worked as a Data Management Coordinator at Covenant House, California. Covenant House is a homeless shelter with locations in Hollywood and Oakland, that serves 18-24 year old homeless youth and provides them with health care, addresses their educational needs (GED’s, tutoring, etc.), and provides counseling. When her husband accepted a professorship in the Chemistry Department at UCI, they moved from Pasadena to Irvine.

Jessica enjoys working at UCI as the Managing Editor of AERA Open, a brand new open access journal. Her role includes monitoring and expediting the progress of journal manuscripts through peer review, revision, and transfer to publication.

Jessica also enjoys spending free time with her husband Shane and 13 month old son, Ryan.

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