Jessica Vann is a wife, mother, friend, and licensed professional counselor in private practice in Columbia. A military brat who has lived up and down the Southeast, Jessica calls Charleston home. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Winthrop University, where she met her husband. She earned her Master’s Degree in Family, Marriage, and Couples Counseling from Walden University. Jessica Has always loved hearing people’s stories and learning what made them who they were. While she never formally utilized her broadcasting degree in a media job, she used her interviewing skills in various roles. Jessica started her commitment to helping others by working as a Residence Director working with college students, a foster care case manager with the Department of Social Services, a Clinical Counselor working with HIV/AIDS clients, and the severely mentally ill with the Department of Mental Health. In 2020 just before the Covid-19 outbreak Jessica started her private counseling practice, InVision Counseling, wanting to provide mental health services where clients were more than just a number and a list of tasks to check off. Providing judgment-free therapeutic services that respect the individuality of all people has always been important to Jessica. She began her practice offering sexual wellness therapy teaching individual clients and couples to connect with themselves and one another. As Jessica got to know her clients, she quickly learned many of them experienced traumatic birthing experiences. Many of these clients found it challenging to overcome their intrusive thoughts to connect with themselves again, let alone their children or partner; hearing the stories of these women and reflecting on her own experiences birthing her two children. Thus Mommy’s Hood Community Wellness Fund was born!

Mommy's Hood Community Wellness Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to bringing awareness to disparities in Black maternal healthcare to reduce maternal & infant mortality. Mommy's Hood aims to help Black mothers to rebuild, reconnect, and enhance their relationships with themselves, their children, and other significant relationships during the peri and postnatal stages of their lives through prioritizing their mental and physical wellness. We place a considerable emphasis on the 4th trimester of motherhood and the many stages thereafter because pregnancy is but a brief nine months; motherhood is forever. There is an old African Proverb that states, "It takes a village to raise a child," we believe the same is true for supporting mothers, especially Black mothers, who are 3-4 times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts. For those mothers fortunate enough to watch their children grow, we hope to relieve some of the pressure of parenting cause momin' ait easy, giving them permission to be TRASH (because we can't all be perfect): thoughtful, rested, accountable, secure, and happy! We encourage mothers to decide for themselves what type of mother their child needs and not allow society to place standards on them that don't fit who they are. Mommy's Hood offers mothers small community-based support groups both virtually & in person, group education & support groups based on the peri & Postpartum stages of pregnancy, parenting groups, vouchers for one-to-one therapy & much more. At some point in the near future, we hope to offer what we call "Birthingships" to Black women aspiring to become maternal health therapists, doulas, & midwives.