Team

Jessica Hood

Senior Consultant

 
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Jess is an accomplished project manager with over 18 years’ experience in the applied research, quality assurance and program administration environments.

An integral part of the AHA team for more than a decade, Jessica has worked across projects in the mental healthdisability, educationaged and community care sectors, and many of AHA’s evaluation consultancies have benefitted from her expertise in project coordination and support. She has also coordinated quality review and audit programs of community service organisations across Australia.

Jess is currently the Project Manager for the Program for Students with Disabilities, which AHA administers on behalf of the Victorian Government. This role makes the most of her outstanding stakeholder engagement skills, her ability to foster positive and productive relationships, and her skill in negotiating with non-government service providers, Department staff and service users. Jessica recently utilised this experience to manage the implementation of a state-wide Pilot project to trial the use of a new tool for assessing the functional needs of students with disabilities and additional needs. 

In addition to these roles, Jess was recently responsible for the planning and implementation of a customer support contact centre as part of AHA’s engagement as the Pharmacy Programs Administrator. This work drew on her previous experience establishing and managing large project teams to interview NDIS participants face-to-face and over the phone to gather information to help them to transition to the NDIS.

Prior to joining AHA, Jess worked as a team leader in the CATI centre of a large market and social research company, while also studying at the University of Melbourne where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons). Her intelligence, adaptability and hard work continue to underpin everything she does.

Jess is an accomplished project manager with outstanding stakeholder engagement skills.