Tessa Jones is the Vice President of Event Operations at Chapman University, where
she leads event scheduling, conference services, theater operations, external events,
and ticketing services. She oversees a team supporting more than 25,000 events annually,
including major university events, performances, conferences, and external partnerships.
Since joining Chapman in 2018, Tessa founded the university’s Ticketing Services department,
which now supports more than 500 events and processes over 100,000 tickets each academic
year. In 2025, Chapman’s ticketing team received the Outstanding Ticket Office Award
from the International Ticketing Association.
Prior to Chapman, Tessa spent 14 years in the performing arts in the Twin Cities,
Minnesota, most recently serving as Director of Marketing and a member of the senior
leadership team at Schubert Club in Saint Paul. Her career in the arts spans marketing,
ticketing, audience development, technology, and organizational strategy, and she
brings that experience to her work at Chapman with a particular passion for live events
and creating meaningful experiences. She is both a thinker and a doer, with a focus
on continuous improvement, innovation, and helping teams think bigger and find smarter
ways to accomplish meaningful results.
Tessa holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and a Bachelor of
Science in Business from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
Originally from North Dakota, Tessa is a lifelong arts enthusiast who feels fortunate
to have built a career around something she genuinely loves: bringing people together
through live events and experiences
