Jessica McLean is a writer and journalist from Detroit, MI who wants to serve God by giving others a voice through her writing. She is currently interested in public relations, social media, communications and marketing to become a more well-rounded communications professional and tell compelling stories for companies. She has many transferrable skills from her time in journalism, which are applicable to all these areas.

Jessica is currently working as a lifeguard supervisor at Waterford Pool and Fitness, where she is honing her leadership skills as a shift supervisor. She enjoys working with her lifeguards, attendants and patrons and is always available to answer any question or concern people have while at the pool. She opens and closes the pool on shift, cleans the facility, makes sure the pool chemicals are in check, helps people with their memberships and attends regular inservices. She also briefly worked at Costco from 2023 to 2024, where she was a food court associate, which reminded her of the importance of treating customers well and putting them first.

Jessica briefly worked as the editor of the Spinal Column for six weeks during June and July of 2022, where she bundled her writing, design and leadership skills to manage staff and create compelling editions, particularly the July Lakes edition, which she personally helped write, take photos for and design herself.

From November 2021 to April 2022, Jessica worked as a police reporter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, her first official reporting position, where she learned how to report full-time, write a better police story and build relationships with sources, particularly the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s office and Traverse City Police Department. To do this, she moved to the area to work in the coverage area, attended daily media briefings at the police department and worked in a newsroom with other reporters and staff in downtown Traverse City.

From November 2015 to June 2021, she worked as a paginator and online multimedia journalist at MediaNews Group, at The Oakland Press location in Pontiac and Troy, Michigan. She was published regularly there, with several articles and original photos featured on the front page and inside The Oakland Press, Royal Oak Tribune, The Macomb Daily, Morning Sun, News Herald, Press & Guide and The Voice. Previously, she freelanced for The Novi News, The South Lyon Herald and The Milford Times.

As for her education, Jessica has an associates in Global Studies from Oakland Community College (OCC) and a bachelors degree in Journalism from Oakland University (OU). At OU, She interned at the Lake Orion Chamber of Commerce in public relations and The Oakland Post as a reporter, where she also was Vice President of university’s chapter of the Society of Professionals Journalists. In 2025, Jessica has sought to get more involved with the Public Relations Society of America — Detroit Chapter, for which she has attended events and gotten connected with others.

Jessica also enjoys creative writing and maintains a creative writing blog, The Rose (the writeaholic.com), where she publishes her poetry and short stories. She also writes a monthly column there, entitled “Ad-Lib”, where she talks about her creative writing process and tries to offer tips about writing to other writers. She hopes to use the site to publish a book of her poetry, with a focus on several poetic forms. She is also working on a book based on the fairy tale, “Boots and His Brothers”, with her version taking place in 1864 Switzerland and Bavaria.

When she’s not chasing down her next story or working on her blog, however, you can usually find Jessica worshipping Jesus at her church, Auburn Hills Christian Center, where she regularly serves, running slides for the worship team or serving coffee at the church cafe. She is also on the committee for Ladies Night Out (LNO), a ministry which she helped found, which takes women of the church “out” for special event. She most recently set up a photo booth at the LNO Christmas party, with Christmas-themed props and a backdrop, where she took photos on her DSLR camera and the ladies’ phones. She sent the DSLR photos to them later and encouraged the women to post their photos on social media with the hashtags “#elfie” and “#LNOChristmasparty”. She also occasionally takes photos for the church’s promotional materials, which she also did for this event.

Because creativity is her strength, Jessica has recently started a side hustle, “Midnight Quilting and Crafts”. She makes custom quilting, crochet and crafting projects for her customers, but also enjoys quilting and crocheting as a hobby in general, skills which she learned from her grandmother. Other hobbies include drawing, painting and coloring, cooking, reading books, newspapers and magazines, watching the news, YouTube, streaming services or anime, gaming and geeking out over Star Wars, Marvel or FireEmblem (or, lately, Pokemon Violet). In the past, she has also enjoyed skiing, longboarding on her Landyachtz cruiser, strumming her classical guitar and playing piano.

Jessica enjoys spending time with her family and friends, for whose support she is ever grateful, and hanging out with her cat, Midnight, whose cuteness will forever make her a cat person. She is an ENFP on the Myers Briggs and Keirsey typology tests, and a Type 4 on the Enneagram.