Jessica S. Albert

Jessica S. Albert, 49, a resident of Grayslake, IL, passed away on October 19, 2026 at her home. She was born on November 24, 1976 in Dixon, IL to Michael and Kris (nee Richardson) Smuksta.

As a young person, Jessica delighted in books like Wrinkle in Time and family Thanksgiving gatherings with cousins.

She pursued her love of music and language at Wartburg College where she played trumpet in the college’s concert band and double-majored in Spanish and English. Both languages helped her connect with the communities she served abroad and closer to home: Puebla, Mexico; Americus, Georgia; and East St. Louis, Illinois. On campus, she watched sunsets, played in the fountain, and reveled at Red Lobster with a group of friends who called themselves ‘the Mahis’.

After graduating, Jessica moved to Chicagoland for work at Learning Resources. She conducted and evaluated research for English Language Learners and native Spanish speakers, supporting the development of innovative products like pocket charts, phonological Spanish, and the Alphabetic Principle for young people while also cultivating a culture of care and diligence among her peers.

Jess met her future husband, Adam, at a neighbor’s summer BBQ. They shared dating adventures like biking the Des Plaines River Trail, rafting in the Grand Canyon, and enjoying celebratory dinners at their favorite Italian restaurant. These adventures were welcome escapes from, in her words, their “planes, trains, and automobile-style” apartments which lay beneath a major O’Hare airport flight path and adjacent to railroad tracks. On July 2, 2005, they married; and the two were drawn to Lake County’s forest preserves, farmland, and open spaces. They moved to Grayslake in 2005 and welcomed their first son, Seth, two years later. Reid arrived in 2012, and Jess decided to weave her instructional experiences, music, and a love of outside adventures into her boys’ schools and community.

Jess's signature smile expressed the delight she found while sharing the natural world with her family and friends, often pointing out the Fibonacci Sequence in sunflowers, the texture of orchids, and monarch butterflies’ eggs nestled under milkweed leaves. She helped her sons and their peers build frog habitats in Meadowview School’s outdoor classroom, sent photos of beaver dams while serving in Lake County’s Stormwater District, hiked laps around Lexington Woods, and invited others to paddle, visit honey bees, and explore pollinator habitats. As in college, music and art also delighted Jess. Many weekends found her in the schools listening to her sons play in Grayslake Middle School’s and Grayslake North’s marching bands, volunteering for Science Olympiad, or participating in multi-cultural events like African drum circles and water color painting classes.

As a public servant, Jessica served her community well. She supported a wide swath of students, serving on Foundation46’s Fine Arts Commission, Sprouts, Birds in My Neighborhood, and on the elementary school board. She championed sustainability, resource conservation, and outdoor learning spaces because she saw the intimate connections between students and the environments in which they live and learn. As one principal noticed, “Jess was a volunteer with a mission!” She helped establish Woodland Days and a partnership with the Lake County Forest Preserve, both of which helped garner Meadowview’s recognition from the U.S. Department of Education as a 2019 Green Ribbon School. Foundation46 named Jessica the recipient of the Tom Meskel award for her life-long commitment to education. She also committed time and talent to Grayslake Connects and Lake County’s Democratic Women, worked at Prairie Crossing Charter School and, most recently, at SEDOL, Lake County’s Special Education District. At Cool Learning Experience, she donned the moniker “Cinnamon Fern” where she championed children and contributed her many talents to developing the social and natural ecosystems that support place-based learning.

Jessica’s motto was “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”

Jessica is survived by her husband of 21 years, Adam; her parents Michael and Kris Smuksta; her children, Seth and Reid; and her brother, Matt (Satomi) Smuksta of Wisconsin and numerous other beloved family members and friends.

A Memorial Service will be held at Strang Funeral Chapel, 410 E Belvidere Road, Grayslake, IL 60030 on Monday, October 26, 2026 at 6pm. A Visitation will be held at the funeral chapel on Monday from 4pm until the time of service. Interment will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Park Foundation or the Lake County Forest Preserve’s Foundation. Gifts to the forest preserve can also be made by calling 847 968-3110 and are 100% tax- deductible. For more information, please call (847) 233-8122 or visit www.StrangFuneral.org.