Faculty

Profile

Jessica Walker is the Director of Illustration and an Associate Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design in New York. Her creative practice spans visual art, illustration and social engagement. Her work can be found on bookshelves, in exhibition spaces, and inside her classroom where she experiences the joy of teaching emerging artists and designers. Walker’s visual artwork has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally. Her visual artwork draws from the pattern-making and quilting traditions of Southern Appalachia and her writing explores the cultural politics of rural America.

Walker is the illustrator of "Baby Feminists" and "Baby Feminists Too," two board books that invite youngish-to-oldish readers to consider that the most impressive people on the planet were once babies. Walker is currently working on “The Secret Astronomers,” an illustrated novel for young adults that is set in her native Appalachia (Viking Books for Young Readers, 2025). It is a modern day epistolary novel handwritten over the original text of a 19th-century astronomy textbook. The story unfolds through the handwritten notes, drawings and ephemera created by two anonymous teenagers who find the book in their rural West Virginia library. 

Walker’s creative work and research have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Commission and The New York Community Trust. As an educator, her scholarship focuses on pathway development and methods through which to increase equity and access to art and design education. At Parsons she facilities partnerships with community organizations who support under-resourced youth in neighborhoods throughout NYC. On campus, you’ll find Walker teaching courses on a range of topics including design research methods, the surprising world of the creative industry, and how to make books for young audiences. She developed a special topics course called “Mentoring Through Making” in partnership with colleagues from the Global Studies department at The New School. It’s a studio/seminar course where undergraduates explore mentoring and personal reflection through volunteer opportunities at immigrant and refugee centers in New York. 

Walker received her BA in Art History from the University of Virginia and her MFA in Fine Arts from San Francisco State University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two tenacious sons, and three, actually sadly now two pet fish. Reading and making books are among their favorite activities to do together as a family. They make flip books, comic books, graphic novels and journals at their kitchen table press. Some of their favorite bedtime books include, “I Want My Hat Back” by Jon Klasson, the "Dory Fantasmagory” series by Abby Hanlon and everything ever written by Dav Pilkey.

Research Interests

Youth Mentoring, STEAM, Pathway Development, Community Engagement, Children's Book Illustration, Creative Technology

Portfolio

Artist Website

Illustrator Website