Florida Creativity Conference 2025

I am in love with all things CEF after my introduction to this work/CPS in 2021 thanks to Beth Miller. I have been using CPS techniques for ages without knowing it but now I have a framework and some terminology to go along with it! I have been facilitating with both youth and adults for decades. Facilitating is my favorite!

Jessica Andrews-Wilson currently serves as the Executive Director at GUIDE, inc., a nonprofit in Lawrenceville, GA. Full time at GUIDE since 2000 (and a volunteer/part-time staff since 1996), Jessica served as the Director of the Georgia Teen Institute (GTI) until 2011 and the Director of Training and Capacity Building until early 2014 when she became the Associate Director.

Jessica has volunteered and worked in various capacities with community mobilization, youth development and substance abuse prevention since her first year at the Georgia Teen Institute in 1993 as a representative from Brookwood High School in Snellville. Before becoming the Director of GTI in 1998, Jessica worked her way up, serving as a Junior Counselor, Lead Junior Counselor, Adult Advisor and Program Coordinator. Jessica’s transition to the Director of Training & Capacity Building came from the high demand for her training and planning skills both locally and regionally. Given her history and longevity at GUIDE, her expertise in the field and her passion for the work, Jessica was a natural choice to move into the Associate Director role prior to assuming leadership of GUIDE upon the retirement of GUIDE’s Founding Executive Director and Jessica’s mentor, Ari Russell.

During her time at GUIDE, Jessica has secured and maintained several crucial partnerships, including those with the Governor’s Office for Children and Families, various Family Connection collaboratives and several small prevention and youth development agencies. Jessica was also instrumental in the partnership that created the Georgia Afterschool and Youth Development Conference and directed the ASYD Conferences in 2013 and 2014. The partnerships Jessica has fostered have led to more than 75 workshops, trainings and events being conducted by GUIDE annually.

Jessica is an Internationally Certified Prevention Specialist through the Prevention Credentialing Consortium of Georgia, serves on the PCCG Board of Directors and regularly trains others in the Core Courses required by PCCG. In 2012, Jessica received the Ray Avant Excellence in Prevention Award from the Georgia Office of Prevention Services and Programs for her contributions to the field. Jessica earned her Master of Science in Organizational Development and Leadership from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in May 2014.