Jessica Carew Kraft

San Francisco, CA USA
Website: http://www.WritingKraft.com
Contact

Professional Experience

My graduate training at Yale in anthropology gave me thorough research skills and a keen eye for intriguing cultural artifacts and trends. I offer an eclectic expertise: I'm currently covering the new trends in diet, nutrition and exercise, the exploding green consumer market, and innovations in Jewish culture. Recently I've researched a new mindfulness lab at Stanford, gone "paleo" for a series on new diets, traveled to Tunis to interview classical musicians, exposed hidden toxic hazards in everyday items like incense and spray paint, and interviewed fascinating figures like Project Runway's Tim Gunn, renowned author Terry Tempest Williams and new age spiritual leaders Andrew Cohen and Don Miguel Ruiz. From long features to lively previews, I provide insight and color with a strong social conscience.

Expertise

Copy Editor
11 Years
Writer
13 Years
Designer
10 Years

Specialty

Arts & Humanities
13 Years
Environment & Nature
6 Years
Lifestyle
3 Years

Industries


Academia Teaching
8 Years
Magazine - Local/Regional magazines
8 Years
Newspaper - Local/Regional
13 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

13 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

J.Weekly (10+), MyJewishLearning (6-10), Common Ground Magazine (6-10), East Bay Express (3-5), Grist Magazine (3-5), Christian Science Monitor (1-2), New York Times (1-2), San Francisco Chronicle (1-2), Yoga Journal (1-2)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Academy of Art University (3-5), Hallmark (1-2), University of California, Berkeley (1-2)

Other Work History

I've been an adjunct instructor in journalism, art history, sustainable design, anthropology, sociology and critical writing at several universities in New York City and San Francisco, CA.

Technical Skills

LEED accredited 2009

Foreign Language Skills

Advanced French

Computer Skills

MS Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Associations

Member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto

Showcase

General

After the Revolution, Arts Bloom in Tunisia
(Christian Science Monitor 2/9/2012)
As Tunisia's 'Jasmine Revolution' turns one, classical musicians find new venues, funds, and teachers -- along with official support.
Art Review: Neti, Neti, Surendran Nair
(ArtAsiaPacific 5/1/2011)
Penetrating the fourth wall of Nair's drama requires a basic familiarity with Hindu deities and Kathakali, a 17th-century dance and theatrical tradition based in the artist's native Kerala...
Primal Time: How Green is the Caveman Diet?
(Grist.org 7/2/2012)
The theory behind living long and dropping dead is simple, if a bit reductionist. The reason we Westerners get fat, sluggish, and sick, spending our final days wasting away in wheelchairs, is because we’ve been disconnected from our evolutionary program, or “primal blueprint.�
Can the University of California Really Green Campus Food?
(Grist.org 3/27/2012)
By 2020, 20 percent of the purchases made in UC dining facilities and fast food franchises on all campuses must meet one or more of 16 sustainable food criteria set by the Real Food Challenge, a national activist network focused on steering American colleges and universities toward sustainability.
Toxic Art
(East Bay Express 3/23/2011)
On shelves, in studios, and at schools, art supplies containing toxic ingredients pose risks to human health and the environment.
Digital Overload?
(New York Times 7/20/2012)
"Designing Calm," a graduate course at Stanford's Institute of Design, is part of an emerging field that seeks to alleviate stress by embedding mindfulness into the devices that pervade contemporary life.
Acorns: Not Just For Squirrels Anymore
(San Francisco Chronicle 9/28/2011)
It's acorn season. They're falling by the barrel-load into our yards and parks, littering the ground with squirrel food. But Jolie Lonner Egert doesn't see this as a nuisance. She calls acorns the "original California cuisine."
Q & A with Tim Gunn
(Positive Thinking Magazine 12/1/2007)
Tim Gunn, Creative Director at Liz Claiborne, host of Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, and everyone's favorite personality on Project Runway talks about positive style.
Creating a Jewish Pregnancy
(MyJewishLearning.com 10/1/2009)
I felt rather disappointed--well, actually, kind of cheated--when I found almost nothing in our tradition to guide an expecting mother. I discovered that those talmudic rabbis who discussed, debated, and opined about what part of the field to harvest first, and when a woman was ritually pure...