Jessica Evans

Professional Profile

Jessica, a Boyd County, Kentucky native, earned her Bachelor of Fine Art with a concentration in Ceramics from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. After graduating, Jessica used her eye for design in curating, graphic design/marketing, and teaching roles at galleries, museums and art centers. She now has a decade of leadership experience in non-profit and arts administration. 

Prior to joining CEDIK in January 2020 as an Arts Extension Associate, she served as Executive Director of the Appalachian Artisan Center in Hindman, KY. There, she envisioned and implemented a half-million dollar Creative Place-making Initiative termed the “Culture of Recovery” which has gained national acclaim utilizing the power of the arts in addiction healing. 

Jessica’s additional training as a Community Scholar and as a Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange Cohort drives her to bridge divides within communities through creativity and good stewardship.

At CEDIK, Jessica continues and expands her work of integrating arts into recovery efforts, developing a statewide curriculum and toolkit for use by community partners who wish to strengthen existing treatment programs for substance use disorder through the addition of arts-expression programming.