As people and in our professions, we are in transition. Our typical ways of working just aren’t working, and we need new pathways. Confluence Consulting is a transformation doula, facilitating the journey of where you are to where you want to be.
We support transformative leadership development through coaching, teaching the relearning of relationship to grow community impact, and gathering changemakers with the New Leaders Network. We develop nonprofit organizations by facilitating powerful experiences, offering strategic solutioning and project management services.
Confluence stands out because of how we do this work– collaboratively, intentionally, and aligning values with action. We hold a commitment to equity, justice and wellness as the lenses through which these services are offered. We are at the confluence of great ideas, alternative futures and values-based action.
Confluence was born out of necessity. The beginning of the journey to Confluence is hard to pin down, since so much of how we do the work is informed by lived experience. Was it Jess' formative years, growing up in Nashville, Tennessee with its rich civil rights history? Was it her liberatory education at The Evergreen State College? Or maybe it was the deep and powerful introduction to an Indigenous worldview living in Alaska? Whatever the case, Confluence exists to do what took Jess decades to learn- we can and must change how we work if we want to impact our outcomes for the benefit of people and planet.
Nonprofits are funded to solve big, sticky problems. But the tools and methods we use to solve big issues don’t work because they are trying to heal the symptoms and not the root. So we stay stuck, solving problems in cycles. If we could change the way we thought about and framed our response to these big issues, we could change our outcomes and build stronger community in the process.
As we continue to leverage the benefits of nonprofits and work toward impact, we should all be interested in how we can engage with the internal work- whether that’s shifting our mindsets or changing up our processes- so our external outcomes also naturally change. Now Jess helps people, leaders, and organizations commit to this necessary transformation, so we can be more effective in their work and lives.
An embodied strategy supports the heart work. Confluence supports people and organizations who are creating just and sustainable futures through shared values and collective action. We help you get from where you are to where you want to be.
Working in partnership, at the speed of trust, we are co-creating movements required of us in our current contexts. Confluence is helping our clients build the worlds of our wildest dreams- where change is possible and productive.
We We uphold equity,justice, and wellness as core values, ensuring that all our services promote inclusive practices and social responsibility. We are making the way we work be an example of what’s possible.
I’m a systems thinker, connector, and unapologetic believer in the power of community to disrupt, reimagine, and heal. As the owner and founding member of Confluence Consulting, I bring lived experience and strategic insight to support bold leaders and organizations working to untangle—and transform—complex systems.
My background is rooted in popular education, Indigenous advocacy, equity, and network weaving. I’ve led a statewide prevention and healing network (The Alliance), supported Native youth and families through Alaska’s Title VI/Indian Education program, and co-created initiatives that prioritize people, collective governance, and deep trust-building.
Now back in my home state and based in rural Tennessee, I collaborate with change and movement makers across sectors to design powerful networks, implement shared leadership models, and operationalize equity—while keeping people, place, and story at the center.
Let’s create what doesn’t yet exist. Let’s make the intractable… movable.
Aeros Gale Giles was born in Maury County, Tennessee but only because there’s no hospital that delivers babies in Marshall County. He’s lived within a thirty-mile range his entire life, growing up on milk farms in the poorest parts of the region. Aeros faced many challenges when his family joined a religious cult because he knew he’s been trans since childhood. He had to suppress his authentic identity, but found support in one family member- his beloved Grandma. After being married off as a child “bride”, he divorced his then-husband and father of his two wonderful children and set out on a journey to find himself.
After years of searching, Aeros could not live the way he was and only accepting that he was trans saved his life. His transition began in 2022 and he met his life partner the same year! Living authentically has allowed Aeros to grow, love, change, and be present for those in his community still struggling. He didn’t choose the trans activist life, it chose him because of the severe lack of adequate medical, cultural, and social services for trans and queer people in rural Tennessee.