Jessica Benton Cooney is a Senior Communications Consultant for International IDEA’s Inter Pares: Partnerships in Parliament project, where she leads strategic communications for this European Union–funded initiative to strengthen global parliamentary development.

Previously, Jessica served as Team Lead and Senior Strategic Communications Specialist at USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, where for more than a decade she developed and directed strategic communications and outreach, cross-agency messaging, and public engagement to advance DRG’s global mission. She also worked as a communications specialist on two USAID projects in Liberia and in the Development Outreach and Communications Office at USAID/Afghanistan.

Before her international development career, Jessica covered elections, politics, and Congress as a Staff Writer and Production Editor at Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. She holds an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Political Science and Communications from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin. She also served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador.