It was not long—after transitioning full time in July, 2006—before Jessica took a more active role as a moderator and facilitator of the MAGIC support group, and leading many of the newcomer sessions. At about the same time, in September, 2006, she made her infamous first media appearance on DC101’s Elliot in the Morning show. She received a lot of very positive feedback, both from the transgender community as well as the community at large, that she had touched a number of lives that morning. [The full audio recording of the interview is available on the Public Appearances page.] This only served to fuel her confidence even more, and reinforced her wish to get more actively involved in transgender community events and public outreach. Shortly thereafter, she got involved with the DC Rape Crisis Center’s new Transgender working group, helping to address the specific needs of transgender victims of violence.

On December 1, 2006, Jamison “James” Green (the same man that Jessica had seen a few years prior on television) was scheduled to make an appearance and make a presentation at the University of Maryland. An open invitation was made to transgender individuals who might want to participate in an introductory discussion panel at the event. Jessica contacted the organizers almost immediately and told them her story. The organizers welcomed her onto the panel of six speakers. Jessica thanked them for the opportunity and told them the story of how she had been touched by Jamison Green a few years prior. Having heard that, the organizers asked her if she would be prepared to personally introduce James to the audience at the event. Be prepared? What an honor to be able to personally introduce the man who had saved her life! So Jessica made her first public appearance in front of the 80–100 attendees, telling a much more abbreviated version of the story that you have been reading, and in closing, she introduced James by ending with her anecdote of the first time that she saw him, thanking him for what he did for her. James was very touched by her introduction and even shed a few tears as he heard the story for the first time. [A full transcript of her speech is available on the Public Appearances page.] After the event, Jessica joined the rest of the organizing team and had dinner with James. Over dessert, they had a chance to get to know a little more about each other, and Jessica will forever treasure the whole experience. She was sad to say goodbye at the end of the evening, as she knew that it would probably be years before she might get to see him again...

A week later, Jessica got to do something she had only dreamed about till that point: attend a formal dinner and dress up for the evening the way she had always wanted to (instead of wearing a penguin suit, which she never felt suited her). After all, being holiday season, it was time for her company's annual holiday party, which they always made a huge deal about. Not only did she feel as beautiful as she had ever felt in her life, she won a particularly nice piece of jewellery in the company's annual raffle, which just topped the evening off for her. And she will never forget something that she overheard from more than one person while walking up to receive the prize: "... now there is the most appropriate winner of a prize if there ever was one ...", followed by some brief explanations to nearby spouses as to the significance of the moment.

In early January, 2007, just a few weeks after her first public appearance, one of her close friends told her that James would be the keynote speaker at the 2007 Mazzoni Center Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jessica had already been planning to go to that conference, and had proposed a workshop on making a successful transition at work. About a month later, she was invited to present her workshop at the conference. This was a great opportunity for her, and on April 6, 2007, she presented "Making a Successful Transition at Work" to an enthusiastic audience of 34 people, among them the familiar face of Jamison Green. [More information about the workshop and the conference is available on the Public Appearances page.  Presentation slides and sample documents referenced by the workshop are available for download from the Sample Transition Documents page.] Preliminary feedback on the day showed a great deal of positive reaction, including from James, who had some very helpful tips for her for future presentations and advocacy work. In talking to some of the attendees afterwards, many of them found the workshop to be very helpful and applicable to their own transition plans.

A week after her Trans-Health workshop, Jessica was invited to present her workshop, "Making a Successful Transition at work" at Capital Trans Pride 2007 (part of Capital Pride 2007, Washington, DC's annual LGBT Pride event) on June 3, 2007. What really made that opportunity special was that it was the very first time that Capital Pride had included a Transgender-focused event on their calendar [and the fact that her new girlfriend, Devin, was there to support her made it even better, but more on that later...].  The event was well attended for a first run event, and she presented to a group of 15 people. On that same day, she also found out that her workshop was to be included on the schedule at the 2007 Southern Comfort Conference (one of the largest transgender conferences in the world) in Atlanta, Georgia on September 15, 2007. [With the success of her workshops so far, she is also considering a longer, more detailed two-part version of the workshop for the 2008 Trans-Health Conference which would allow for much more discussion about attendees' particular situations in the context of the topics being discussed.]

Jessica also had the opportunity of being trained by Out & Equal Workplace Advocates to present their corporate workshop, "Building Bridges: LGBT Diversity in the Workplace" which she plans to present at her own workplace soon, and she is working towards becoming a certified trainer with Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, after which she plans to present both the LGBT and Transgender-specific versions of the extended Building Bridges seminar series to corporations across the United States.

Jessica’s ultimate goal is to make as much of a difference in people’s lives as she possibly can, and especially to do what she can to make the lives of those making a transition of this magnitude just that little bit easier...

[But enough of all this education and advocacy stuff already... okay, where was I... ah, yes... girlfriend...]