Meet Jessica Wiskus
The daughter of a farmer and schoolteacher from Lisbon, Jessica Wiskus is the seventh generation in her family to live on Iowa soil. She is new to politics, but a trusted advocate for rural communities. Thanks to her work organizing with her neighbors against the use of eminent domain for Iowa’s proposed CO2 pipeline projects, her voice has been featured in
newspapers, television, and webinars—from the local nightly news, to a YouTube channel with thousands of views, to an interview with The Wall Street Journal. She advocates for rural communities for one, sole reason—because “we matter.” At the center of her vision for rural life are the values that she learned from her ancestors and neighbors: respect, understanding, courage, and accountability.
Jessica is a mother, a wife, an educator and a community volunteer. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Iowa in music, followed by two Master’s Degrees and a Doctorate from Yale University. She spent twenty years teaching at the college level, making her career at Duquesne University, a private Catholic University in Pittsburgh, PA. But she always wanted to return to Iowa, and in 2019, she and her family moved back to the state, just a couple of miles up the gravel road from her family’s farm. She continues her work in academic research and enjoys volunteering in her community—for her church, for Southeast Linn Community Center, and for the Master Gardener program.