As an activist for social justice issues for the past thirteen years, Jody Ipsen has been publicly speaking on behalf of nearly 3,200 migrants who have perished in the Tucson Sector in the borderlands of Arizona. By giving voice to the deceased as founder and director of the Migrant Quilt Project, she writes and advocates for humane immigration reform. By utilizing compassionate memorial quilts to honor those who have died in the Tucson Sector, she illuminates the plight of migrant deaths by contextualizing personal stories of loss to shed light on the immigration crisis that is responsible for over 6,000 deaths along the entire U.S./Mexico border.

Ipsen has a master’s degree in creative nonfiction, which lends itself to storytelling, public advocacy and education. Her essay “Prudencia” is published in a Freshman English, college textbook, Writing Today, published by Pearson. It weaves together Prudencia’s deadly odyssey from Todos Santos, Guatemala to the scorching Sonoran Desert where she succumbed to heat exposure less than ten miles from Tucson.

Ipsen has presented The Migrant Quilt Project to numerous audiences and venues, including schools, colleges, public libraries, churches and art exhibits. She is committed to The Migrant Quilt Project until there are no more deaths in the desert.