Chess Jakobs (@chessjakobs) is an environmental social scientist, org strategist, writer, and producer who has led strategic initiatives across organizations with a focus on people and climate.

Chess joined Counterstream in 2023, and since then has produced Counterstream’s Story Salon Series at NYC Climate Week (Reframing Resistance and Season of Dissent) and DC Climate Week (Public Power and the Grid), as well as pinning the original poem Sum of Steps, which was featured in Peace & Riot Magazine.

In 2026, Chess made their playwriting debut at Ford’s Theatre and won the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play for The American Five. Chess is an organizer of DC Climate Week and previously served on the Voting Committee of the DC Environmental Film Festival and Girl Plus Environment.

In the MS in Climate Change Program at the University of Edinburgh, Chess is researching nature-based solutions and the relationship between masculinity and the climate crisis. Chess received the MLK Spirit Award for Leadership and Excellence from their alma mater, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, in 2018.