Jessica is passionate and dedicated to brightening the future of Oregon. She grew up in a small town in Indiana called Crown Point, to a very large Mexican family on the maternal side. Her mom was one of nine and her grandfather one of ten. Her grandfather had come from Mexico to settle in Indiana to work in the steel mills, since it provided him with good pay despite his 8th grade education level. His income allowed him to raise nine children including Jessica’s mother. Pederson’s dad on the other hand grew up in Tacoma Washington, but got a job in the steel industry in Indiana, which led him to meet her mom as she was his bosses’ secretary.
Her mom had always had a strong voice for Latinos which had set a good example for Pederson and her two sisters to continue being advocates. She also felt it helped her awareness after she learned of the struggles her mom and grandparents had been through. Pederson started to get involved in high school talking about diversity issues and continued being an advocate when she got to college becoming vice president of Latinos Unidos. She laughed as she explained that she is kind of a geek when it comes to her background, which is in computers and technology. She spent many years working for software start ups and different companies doing customer service, tech support and program management work. To her learning about computers and technology is very important to the future because there will only be more jobs opening in this industry and right now there are not enough people who have those skills.
Pederson has lived in Portland for fourteen years now, with her husband and five year old daughter and son who is two and a half. Family is really important to her, especially growing up in such a large family that she is happy that her parents and sisters have made the move out to Oregon too. Outside of her work she loves spending time with her kids, and reading, her favorite genre is science fiction. Getting outside with her family and hiking and exploring what Oregon has to offer is also something she enjoys.
Her parents she cited as having the biggest influence on her life, and is lucky that she has them living so close by. Growing up her mom had helped her shape her beliefs and inform her about what was going on in the world, and because of their close relationship she always enjoyed having honest conversations about important issues with her. She then explained how her father was always asked if he wished he’d had a son. She was always proud of his answer that “there is nothing having a son would give him that daughters didn’t” and looking back she is very appreciative of that.
Representing East Portland, there is a huge immigrant population and a high poverty rate. Her values go along with her districts and that families are the most important. She wants to make sure all Oregon families have the chance to better their lives and have better access to education, good paying jobs and fairness in all things.
Pederson’s greatest accomplishment in her life has been for her to be able to run for office. There are a lot of sacrifices she has had to make, the biggest one for her is being away from her kids, but she is thankful for the support from her husband. She is also proud to be the first Latina in the house and to represent those who don’t have a seat at the table. Pederson is looking forward to her legislative session and is ready to do great things for Oregon. She is passionate and believes that because Latinos are twelve percent of the population here in Oregon, it needs to be reflected in the state legislature.