About

Jessie Contour is an educator, mentor, and leader. Her teaching philosophy is based in the idea of creating projects using technical building blocks as a way to empower students to more completely question the contexts within which they are creating. She is the NYC Director of BlueStamp Engineering, a summer engineering program for high schoolers. She also works as an adjunct faculty at Parsons School of Design and Hunter College in NYC where she teaches 3D animation, worldbuilding, storytelling, and game design.

Jessie is also a designer, animator, maker, and educator. She makes projects that question the nature of complex systems and what it means to be alive. Her process includes research, storytelling, rapid prototyping, collaboration and iteration. She has worked with AAA video game studios, museums, educational programs, and startups. Within these fields her focus has been on creating interactive experiences for art, play, and education. She has built digital tools for community engagement, designed a permanent exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History to teach children about earthquakes, and launched video games as part of a global team. She also enjoys creating public art and has worked on two projects with the NYC Department of Transportation to beautify public spaces.

In her spare time Jessie trains in powerlifting and has competed at USAPL Raw Nationals. She is also a dungeon master for a D&D campaign spanning multiple years, a labor of love that expands her experiences with storytelling and worldbuilding.