Alumni Awards: Civic leader Jessica King ’96 receives Distinguished Service Award

This is the second of three profiles about the recipients of EMU’s 2025 Alumni Awards. For more information about the annual awards and a full list of past winners, visit emu.edu/alumni/awards.

JESSICA (JESS) KING ’96 has worked to bring the foundational lessons of her Mennonite upbringing and education to others during her more than 20-year career leading equity-driven public sector organizations—from creating economic opportunity to facilitating transparency in government to building journalistic literacy in communities. In recognition of her work, Eastern Mennonite University’s Alumni Association and its Awards and Nominations Committee have selected King as the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Service Award, which honors alumni who have significantly impacted the lives of others. 

“It’s an honor to be recognized by my alma mater,” said King, who graduated from EMU with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with minors in English, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and psychology. 

Service lights the way

After graduation, King volunteered with Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service (PULSE), founded by EMU alumnus John Stahl-Wert ’81. In an experience she likened to a post-graduate program, King joined a community of young leaders to partner with Pittsburgh nonprofits for a year of service and leadership. She served at the Thomas Merton Center, a Catholic-founded center for peace and justice, and was later hired as executive director of PULSE, where she spent four years expanding her understanding of urban communities and the local businesses, organizations, and governments that serve them. 

King then led a six-year effort as founding executive director of the Union Project to transform an abandoned church building into an arts and enterprise incubator space. She spent more than a decade in Pittsburgh, where she met her husband, Chad. The couple has two daughters, Eleni and Esmé King Martin. Both Jessica and Esmé were greatly impacted by their intercultural studies at EMU; Jessica studied in Greece and lived with families in France and Côte d’Ivoire (West Africa), while Esmé, a rising junior at EMU, spent the spring 2025 semester in Guatemala and Mexico. 

Foundations in community 

King grew up Mennonite in Lancaster County. Her father was killed in a plane crash when she was two. After her mother remarried, her mother and stepfather started a paint store, where King and her three siblings all worked at different points. 

“Growing up, my family had a robust network of support, and our church community was also an essential part of our local economy,” King said. “Connections are important for a prosperous community.” 

King has intentionally lived in low-income neighborhoods for much of her adult life, creating relationships and solidarity that have informed her work and career path—from Pittsburgh to Lancaster, where she fought poverty through entrepreneurship for seven years as executive director at ASSETS; ran for Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District; and served four “eye-opening” years as chief of staff for the City of Lancaster. 

“There’s a narrative that our situations in life are based on our choices, but generational trauma and poverty, oppression based on race or gender, and access to quality education are huge factors. The rules of our economy are created by the wealthy and well-connected, creating systems of opportunity and disinvestment that are so much more than choice,” said King. 

She says that Jesus teaches us about economic issues more than many other Christian themes. “Loving our neighbors as ourselves includes examining and changing socioeconomic systems that support people,” she said. 

Since September 2023, King has served as inaugural executive director of The Steinman Institute for Civic Engagement in Lancaster. The nonprofit is focused on funding innovation in local news to support informed and engaged communities. It is also working “upstream from news” to build trust, center solutions, and equip action. 

King says her recent work reminds her of the conflict transformation teachings at EMU, including those taught by John Paul Lederach. 

“Change is possible,” said King. “We can choose not to participate in the dystopian fears that can paralyze and isolate us. Values, teachings, and examples from EMU and the broader world provide guideposts and road maps to other ways forward.” 

King will share her story at EMU TenTalks, held on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 1:30 p.m. in Martin Chapel during Homecoming 2025. For a full schedule of Homecoming events and activities, visit emu.edu/homecoming.