Meet the OCC Team
CO-FOUNDER
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE NURSE PRACTITIONER
Jessica Jimison
FNP-C, IFMCP
Jessica was raised in Amherst, MA, and grew up as a landscaper. She had an exciting summer on a salmon processing boat in Alaska at age 19 that ended in a closed head injury, and the lengthy recovery set her in motion to enter the health field. Starting at Greenfield Community College, she found her love of learning, then got her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from UMass Amherst. She got her Master’s in Nursing from Boston College and worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Wolf Point, Montana for five years.
Jessica loves the blending of science and education that is being a nurse practitioner, working with individuals and families, meeting people where they are, and empowering them to understand and improve their health. After ten years in Primary Care, she found Functional Medicine, became an IFMCP (Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner) in 2018, and found her passion in complex, chronic inflammatory illness.
With a drive to treat and prevent the suffering associated with such inflammatory illness, she and Micaela co-founded Origins Collaborative Care PLLC in 2021. Jessica lives with her daughter in Amherst, and enjoys music, road trips and gardening.
CO-FOUNDER
DIRECTOR OF MIND-BODY EDUCATION AND HEALING
Micaela Giles
Micaela is a New England native who spent most of her life in Connecticut before moving to the Connecticut River Valley in 2009. Even before moving into mind-body work, Micaela’s interests have always been heart-centered and people oriented.
As OCC’s Co-Founder and Director of Mind-Body Education and Healing, Micaela brings nearly 15 years of highly specialized education, training, and certifications in the fields of energy healing, somatic movement, complex and developmental trauma, Polyvagal Theory, the autonomic nervous system, expressive arts therapy, neuroscience, Ancient Wisdom Traditions, bodywork, and mindfulness/meditation. Micaela’s training includes SomaSoul Body-Centered Gestalt Psychotherapy, Shake Your Soul Yoga of Dance Teacher Training, 200-Hour Embodyoga Teacher Training, Yin Yoga study with Paul Grilley, Trauma Sensitive Yoga with Bessel van der Kolk, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Reiki II Advanced Certification with John Harvey Gray, and as well as being a Certified Medical Intuitive.
Micaela is also a Certified Safe and Sound Protocol Practitioner (including advanced certification for Remote SSP Delivery), and recently completed a Connection Masterclass through The Academy of Applied Social Medicine, having earned a Certification as a Technical Curator on the Restorative Practices Deep Learning Platform.
In 2008, Micaela became a trained Hospice volunteer, an experience of great privilege that continues to influence the care she provides to everyone she works with. Additionally, Micaela is a trained bodyworker, having completed her coursework to become a Licensed Massage Therapist at The Massage School in Easthampton. However the pandemic made it unsafe for her to complete the required clinical hours. This turned out to be a fortuitous blessing, as it opened a path for the birth of Origins Collaborative Care!
Yet, Micaela considers her most invaluable learning to be her own hard-won experience as she charted a course of healing from severe, complex chronic illness (and all the many associated losses — personal, relational, financial, and beyond). On a mission to save her life, she eventually discovered a pathway of healing that transformed her health and her life in ways she only dreamed possible.
Her drive to help others experience this kind of healing, too, was the impetus for creating Origins Collaborative Care with Jessica Jimison in 2021. This well-rounded synergy of an experienced IFM-trained Functional Medicine provider combined with the deeply informed perspective of a gifted healer who has personally walked this path of suffering informs absolutely everything we do.
Micaela weaves her profound personal experience, expansive formal education, and an exhaustive amount of informal research, into a unique and powerful approach that is deeply intuitive and responsive to the needs of those she cares for.
Micaela lives in Easthampton, MA with four adorable pets. She loves Mother Nature, RI beaches, camping, music, dancing, learning, laughing, cooking for others, and being a mom to her two hilariously funny adult children.
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE HEALTH COACH
Alexandria Larsen
NBC-HWC
Alexandria grew up in Granville, Ohio where she flourished as a runner and animal lover. At a young age she recognized her ability to make people and animals feel safe and felt she could attune to the energy of both. She exercised this ability by catching wild animals (mostly birds) and building strong relationships with those she loved. While pursuing a degree in Pre-Veterinary Medicine at the Ohio State University Alexandria encountered health issues that led her to find the world of Functional Medicine. The results of her Functional Medicine-informed lifestyle changes were so empowering that she transitioned from her education in Zoology to focus her future career on human health and wellbeing.
In 2020 Alexandria graduated from the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA) and began working with individuals and groups whose goals were oriented toward nutrition and movement. She is especially grateful to have graduated from the program that collaborates with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) which grants her access to a large base of knowledge and resources in the Functional Medicine realm. Alexandria brought her passion for health to her community when she began her own business as a personal chef providing nourishing, strategically-crafted recipes and personalized lessons in healthy and sustainable cooking practices.
Alexandria recently moved to the west coast with her husband in hopes of immersing herself in a health-conscious community and finding a job coaching for a Functional Medicine clinic. Ironically, she found OCC on the east coast and immediately experienced a resonance with their mission and co-founders. Alexandria is pleased to be the newest member of the OCC team!
In her spare time, Alexandria is an avid fermenter. She considers her home a lab where she experiments with eccentric ingredients and crafts nutritionally rich foods and beverages. Give her a book and drop her off in a park and she’ll thrive for hours reading and writing, or running and doing acrobatics barefoot in the grass.
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY AND RESEARCH
CERTIFIED HEARTMATH MENTOR
MEMBER LIAISON
Christene DeJong
MA, MA
Christene grew up outside of Boston and lived in Venezuela, California, and New Jersey before happily returning to Massachusetts and settling in Amherst with her family in 2013. After years of struggling with deteriorating health and mysterious symptoms, she began her journey to wellness with Jessica in 2018 and knows firsthand the power of nervous system regulation as a key to unlocking healing. Excited to share this knowledge with others, she co-led a resilience group from 2019-2020 to share and practice modalities grounded in Polyvagal Theory.
Passionate about documenting and disseminating OCC’s model of care within the scientific community, Christene joins OCC as the Director of Strategy and Research. She brings over 15 years of expertise conceptualizing, designing, and managing complex research studies in the fields of sociology, public health, and higher education. Her research leverages qualitative and quantitative methodologies and has focused on healthcare delivery, health disparities, racial and gender inequalities, college student experience, and grassroots social movements.
Building on her own HeartMath practice and years of facilitating groups, Christene also joins OCC’s Mind-Body team as our certified HeartMath Mentor to bring HeartMath to our members through individual and group sessions.
Outside of work, Christene devotes her time to climate activism, gardening, playing cello, hiking, and relaxing with family and friends.
CLINICAL, TECH, & ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Ellen Marcelo
RN, BSN
Ellen grew up in Tarlac, Philippines and went to Tarlac State University to receive her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2009. She is a Registered Nurse in the Philippines, and has worked as a Rural Nurse and a Floor Nurse, as well as a Home Care Nurse in the United Arab Emirates.
Ellen also has a lot of experience in sales and marketing, including an interest in nutritional supplements. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Ellen sought a remote position to keep her family safe, and felt blessed to join Jessica’s Functional Medicine Team as a remote scribe in 2020. Ellen immediately proved herself to be a quick study in the Functional Medicine field and talented in all things tech, so she is indispensable as an all-around clinical, tech, and administrative assistant at Origins Collaborative Care!
Ellen and her husband Marlon have chosen to stay in the Philippines to start their family, and welcomed their first child, Theodore John, in January, 2022! In their free time, they enjoy watching movies and shows on Netflix, and going to parks for quality time with family and friends. We can't wait to hug Ellen, Marlon, and TJ in person one day!
