Jessica Culpepper is director of Public Justice’s Food Project, which uses the courts to transform industrial farm animal production into a food system that is just, transparent, and accountable to people, not profit. Before joining Public Justice, Jessica was a Barker fellow and staff attorney at the Humane Society of the United States in the Farm Animal Welfare Division. She is a graduate of Georgetown Law, where she focused her studies on the intersection between environmental law and critical race theory. While there, she was on the founding body of the Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives. She obtained her undergraduate from a sustainable agriculture work college in rural North Carolina, where she worked on the farm that grew food for the college vegan cafeteria.
Before her career as an attorney, Jessica worked on vegetable farms, at urban farm nonprofits, and farmers markets in food deserts. She continues her advocacy outside of her work, serving on the founding board of the nature justice organization Butterfly Highway, on the board of her alma mater Warren Wilson College, and on the board of the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project. Jessica lives in Davidson, NC with her husband, three kids, rescue dog and cat, and various farmed animal fosters.