Tess holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, where she taught fiction and poetry to undergraduates and received a Goldwater Fellowship. While at NYU, she worked under award-winning authors including Jonathan Safran Foer, Mary Gaitskill, and Nathan Englander. A writer of fiction and criticism, she has been published in the New Republic and writes a monthly feature for the literary journal Epiphany. Previously, Tess graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in English from Wesleyan University, where she served as a writing mentor in the English and American Studies Departments, working with fellow students on everything from freshman philosophy papers to environmental science theses to doctoral dissertations in ethnomusicology. She also created and taught a literature seminar on Kurt Vonnegut. Outside her major, she ran track and cross-country, studied philosophy and mathematics, and served as a research assistant for Professor of Social Psychology Scott Plous. She currently works part-time for a clinical neuropsychologist specializing in traumatic brain injury at NYU Langone Medical Center.

As an essay coach, Tess draws on her training as a writer as well as her interdisciplinary background and interests, helping students produce work that compels the reader on every level. She sees coaching as a way for students to delve into, shape, and polish not only specific essays but their own narrative, so that they emerge from the process with both fine writing and a sense of their own voice, craft and ability.