Tessa Jones

When Tessa Jones had the opportunity to attend recruitment fairs as a student at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, she chose to skip those offering an avenue to guaranteed placement at a Fortune 500 company once she graduated and did something “completely crazy, instead.”

Rather than take the proven path, Chapman University’s Vice President of Event Operations says, while other students were getting paid internships at local companies such as General Mills, she took an unpaid internship at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“At that internship, I fell in love with live events,” says Jones.  “It was so fun to meet the performers and feel the adrenaline—onstage and behind the scenes—as everyone worked together to deliver a performance.  I also found it deeply rewarding to be part of an organization that benefited the community.”

That combination of creativity, collaboration and purpose had been a part of Jones’s life long before college.  She grew up in Hazen, a small town in North Dakota, where she graduated at the top of her high school class and immersed herself in activities ranging from Future Business Leaders of America to music and drama.

Ideal Career Path

Her out-of-the-box decision in college put Jones on a career path that suited her perfectly.  After completing her internship at the Ordway Center in 2005 and earning a BSB in Entrepreneurial Management and Management Information Systems from the Carlson School of Management in 2006, she accepted her first professional position at the arts organization, Schubert Club, in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She would spend the next 13 years there in a variety of roles, including Marketing and Ticketing Manager, before advancing to Director of Marketing.

“Schubert Club was a fairly small organization, which meant I had the opportunity to learn the inner workings of the organization, and that has helped me in my career,” says Jones, who also served on many boards while there.  “I gained a comprehensive understanding of all facets of the organization and had a great boss who still inspires me today.”  While working at Schubert Club, Jones earned her MBA from the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business in Minneapolis.

While Jones was happy and fulfilled at the Schubert Club, an unexpected opportunity emerged in 2018 when she received an out-of-the-blue call from a recruiter about a position at Chapman University.

“They were looking to start a new ticketing department when Musco Center was still fairly new,” she says.  “They needed someone with complex, niche experience in ticketing, leadership and collaboration within the performing arts. It truly felt like a position made for me.”

Heading West to Chapman

The offer presented a difficult decision for Jones and her husband, Ryan, whom she met during her internship at the Ordway.  “Leaving the Schubert Club meant giving up a job I loved and moving across the country with young children,” she says.  “At the time, our oldest was three and we had an infant.  We were also leaving behind a strong extended family support system.”

Still, the idea of Southern California—and leaving Minnesota winters behind—was appealing.  Once the family visited Chapman’s campus and walked through Old Towne, they felt confident in their choice.

“It only took minutes for us to fall in love with the small-town feel and walkability,” says Jones, who now lives in Old Towne, where her three children attend St. John’s Lutheran School.  “We do miss our family in Minnesota, but we go back regularly.”

When Jones joined Chapman, she hit the ground running. “My first position was Director of Ticketing Services, which meant building a ticketing department from the ground up,” she says.  That included establishing a budget, hiring a team, implementing a new ticketing system and migrating existing data.

Within five months, Jones had put an advanced ticketing operation in place—hiring five full-time staff members and 30 student workers, creating job descriptions, purchasing uniforms and developing standard operating procedures.  The team was fully prepared for the 2020 season when the pandemic forced operations to pause.  Once campus events resumed, momentum quickly returned, and Jones was named Vice President of the newly consolidated events department.

Award-Winning Ticketing Services

The system Jones and her team built proved so effective that, in January 2025, Chapman University Ticketing Services received the International Ticketing Association’s 2025 Outstanding Ticket Office Award.

“Since her arrival, Tessa has elevated how we think about and deliver event operations at Chapman,” says Brian Thomason, Interim Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Chapman University.  “She has done an exceptional job leading a team of event professionals dedicated to ensuring students have access to spaces that are central to the Chapman experience.  She and her team also serve as ambassadors to the community and the thousands of visitors we welcome each year through events, speaker series and other campus programs.”

Jones and her department oversee an impressive volume of events each year at Chapman.  The university manages roughly 25,000 space reservations annually, including 850 large-scale events with 250 or more attendees.  Of those, about 500 are ticketed, accounting for approximately 130,000 tickets each year.

“People often don’t realize just how many events Chapman hosts for the community,” says Jones.  “From high-caliber performances by students and professionals at Musco Center to exhibitions and programs at the Hilbert Museum of California Art, there’s always something happening on campus.”

Chapman’s Vice President of Community Relations, Alisa Driscoll, notes the central role Jones plays in connecting the university with the broader community.  “Tessa’s support of Chapman’s community involvement can’t be overstated,” says Driscoll.  “When we host events on campus, such as the Orange Chamber’s State of the City, it’s her team that leads the logistics.  We simply couldn’t support our community partners the way we do without their dedication.  On a personal level, I admire Tessa’s kindness, collaborative spirit and genuine care for the well-being of our students, staff, faculty and the larger community.”

Chris Hutchison, who has worked with Jones on several student event–related initiatives, echoes Driscoll’s sentiments.

“I’ve always been impressed by how Tessa approaches every conversation from a place of genuine care,” says Hutchison.  “She listens to fully understand all the layers involved and asks thoughtful questions to clarify the scope of an event or challenge.  She balances policy, logistics, details and constraints while still moving conversations and events forward.  That’s not something I take for granted, especially given the volume she manages daily.  She’s a creative, critical thinker who never loses sight of the deeper purpose and impact of each event.”

For Jones, while supporting thousands of Chapman events—and especially the live performances she loves—remains central to her role, what matters most is the impact those moments have on students.  She sees events not simply as logistics to be managed, but as experiences that influence students’ lives.

“I know how instrumental events can be for students, even shaping who they become as adults,” she says.  “Being able to make that kind of impact is incredibly rewarding.”

In many ways, it’s the same instinct that led her to make a “completely crazy” choice as a college student, guided by the belief that meaningful experiences often matter more than guaranteed outcomes.