Jess Ladd

Biography

Jess grew up in San Francisco during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and became deeply committed to sexual health and rights as a result. She explored how to best contribute to improving sexual health & wellbeing in the US through a variety of paths - as an infectious disease epidemiologist, a health education teacher, a public policy advocate, and even from the halls of the White House. Throughout this journey, she was often brought back to the untapped potential of technology to address this issue. Jess founded her first tech startup in 2011, named Sexual Health Innovations, and built a series of technologies to help prevent and track sexually transmitted infections. She then founded Callisto in 2015, a nonprofit dedicated to using technology to support sexual assault survivors and advance justice. Jess has since transitioned Callisto to new leadership, and is advising social impact startups on their strategy and product development.