Jessica currently works at the Southwest Women's Law Center, creating linkages with service providers, grassroots organizations, and other community stakeholders around a variety of issues including education and Title IX compliance, reproductive health and rights, immigration, and Latina/Hispanic affairs. Before joining the Center, she served as the Executive Director of the Latino Union of Chicago, a grassroots organization focused on labor, immigration, and civil rights.

With over ten years of organizing and advocacy experience, Ms. Aranda has worked on a range of other issues including affordable housing, sexual harassment, access to healthcare, land use and displacement. As an organizer in Chicago, her efforts led to the opening of the first day laborer workers' center in the Midwest. An accomplished facilitator and popular educator, she has extensive experience in creating and implementing strategic planning, analysis and skills building workshops. As part of the Immigrant Defense Committee, she took the lead in creating the nation’s most comprehensive curriculum for community preparation and response to immigration raids and detentions. Ms. Aranda served for two years on the board of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and as Chicago’s media coordinator for the 2006 and 2007 mass mobilizations calling for immigration reform. She has a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Latin American Studies from Beloit College and is also a certified interpreter.