Jess Artis

Chicago, IL

Founder, Home Wealth School

Advancing housing stability and preserving generational wealth for vulnerable communities through homeownership training and advocacy

Jess Artis is the founder of Home Wealth School, a research-to-action initiative helping families protect their home wealth and build lasting financial stability. At the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, she engages with Chicago homeowners and heirs to study how families build and lose wealth through intergenerational home inheritance. A licensed attorney with an LL.M. in taxation, she has advised multiple federal agencies on economic development, fiscal policy, and regulatory strategy. Drawing on years as a financial planner and real estate agent helping families navigate home buying, credit, and retirement decisions, Jess is piloting the Home Wealth School on Chicago's South Side by training homeowners to secure property tax exemptions, plan for inheritance, and prevent foreclosure. Through the Scholars program, Jess plans to leverage the systems leadership curriculum to build a strategy for partnerships with neighborhood leaders and community partners to take this model to its next stage, with a focus on supporting housing stability and wealth preservation through expanded programmatic offerings informed by community need.