Reverend Jess (or Jessica) McKimmie, (any pronoun, respectfully) is no stranger to grief, a friend and confidant to many, a Death Doula, Ordained Buddhist Chaplain, and Meditation and Mindfulness teacher. Other identities Jess holds are: forever student, white / white bodied with Scottish, German, English, and Scandinavian ancestry, Queer, non-binary, sister/sibling, auntie-uncle, LGBTQ2IA+ educator and advocate, friend, listener, nature-admirer, bird-observer, sunset-chaser, and lover of life and people.
Formal training includes Going With Grace Death Doula certificate program (Class of ’22), Upaya Zen Center Buddhist Chaplaincy Program (Class of ’19), Pastoral Crisis Intervention (2018), and Mindful Schools Mindful Educator Training (2016). In August 2022, Jess was Ordained in the White Plum Asanga lineage as a Buddhist Chaplain under the care and oversight of Upaya Zen Center. White Plum Asanga follows 82 generations from the historic Shakyamuni Buddha, through Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995), who studied in the Soto, Sanbo Kyodun, and Rinzai traditions and was the abbot of the Los Angeles Zen Center. Maezumi Roshi’s main successor, Roshi Bernie Glassman (1939-2018) was teacher to Roshi Jiko Mannen Joan Halifax (who also studied with the Venerable Thích Nhất Hạnh for ten years prior to Roshi Glassman). Roshi Jiko Mannen Joan Halifax is the founder and current abbott of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, NM.
Field work includes service as Interfaith/Buddhist Chaplain at King County Juvenile Detention Center, Echo Glen Children’s Rehabilitation Center, and the VA Healthcare Center of Puget Sound ICUs and Stem Cell and Bone Marrow transplant centers. Jess also worked as a counselor for Seattle nonprofit YouthCare, supporting youth aged 13-23 who were experiencing homelessness. Jess has taught mindfulness and meditation in various K-12 classrooms, educational, and private settings since 2016.
Prior to Jessica’s work as a Chaplain, she was, perhaps unknowingly, developing a “chaplain’s heart” through her own grief processing, work, and volunteer time. As Executive Director of an LGBTQIA+ youth-focused nonprofit from 2014-2016, Jessica developed programming, trainings, and facilitated support groups for LGBTQIA+ teens at high schools across Thurston County, WA. Jess believes that accessibility to therapeutic and spiritual services within the LGBTQIA+ adult and youth communities is very important, and thus often prioritizes their work in those communities.
Jessica has been a meditation practitioner for many years, with her first exposure to Zen Buddhism and mindfulness in the late 1990s at San Francisco State University, where she holds a BS in Business Management (Class of ’03). A more formal practice of meditation began following her mother’s death in 2012, where Jess began more closely following the teachings of great Zen masters including the Venerable Thích Nhất Hạnh, Vietnamese Zen Master and “father of mindfulness in the West”, and Roshi Joan Halifax.
Jess is based in the Seattle area, but may be available to travel upon request.
Read more about my story of finding peace through grief here…
