Jessica Inkelaar

]Jessica comes to Georgetown Law after a nine-year career with humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC), supporting refugees in the United States and abroad. As a future attorney, she plans to pursue international human rights law.

In 2015, Jessica started with the IRC as a case worker resettling refugees in Garden City, Kansas. Then, in 2016 after the State of Kansas announced its withdrawal from the refugee resettlement program citing alleged security concerns, the federal government selected the IRC as the “replacement designee” in administering the refugee resettlement program. As a result, Jessica moved to Wichita, Kansas in late 2016 as part of the original staff helping to start IRC’s new Kansas Office for Refugees (KSOR), which provided statewide administration of the refugee resettlement program across Southwest Kansas, Wichita, and Kansas City. Over the next five years, Jessica served in various capacities with IRC’s KSOR, including helping to establish the Refugee Cash Assistance program through policy and procedure development, supporting a portfolio of sub-award agreements and service contracts with refugee resettlement agencies and health clinics throughout the state, and organizing community forums to educate Kansas communities on refugee resettlement topics.

In July 2021, Jessica took up a new role with the IRC as a Program & Award Officer for the Middle East and North Africa region, supporting teams in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, from IRC’s headquarters in New York City. She served as the country programs’ primary focal point for grants, compliance, and partnership management on a portfolio of awards funded by U.S. government and UN donors across various sectors, including health, economic recovery and development, child protection, education, women’s protection and empowerment, multi-purpose cash assistance, and protection and rule of law.

Jessica also completed a couple of temporary field assignments with the IRC. In 2020, she supported IRC’s partnerships team for three months from Beirut, Lebanon as they responded to the Beirut port explosion. And in 2023, she supported IRC’s grants team for three months from N’Djamena, Chad as they scaled-up programming to meet the needs of a new wave of Sudanese refugee arrivals.

Jessica obtained her BA in English and Spanish from the University of Alabama in 2010 and her Master of Theology (ThM) from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2014. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and French. Jessica married her husband Brent in 2015, and they have an adorable cat named Banjo.