She helps non-profits work smarter, and champions Edmonton’s Filipino culture, bridging technology and community
Age: 35
Shortly before she left Cebu, Philippines, Jessa Aco Kuchmak had her picture in the newspaper. Sixteen, she’d been named one of the city’s youth leaders for her involvement in student government, the culmination of efforts starting when she was elected “mayor” of her Grade 1 class.
Some weeks later, after arriving in her new home of Edmonton, Kuchmak was sitting in a restaurant in West Edmonton Mall when a fellow member of the city’s Filipino community walked past and did a double take: “Aren’t you Jessa, who was in that newspaper in Cebu last month?”
“That’s how it began,” says Kuchmak. He asked if she’d MC an event for VISMIN, an Edmonton Filipino cultural organization. She has volunteered there since, and she’s now its president, helping usher the organization into a new era.
In January, VISMIN celebrates its 35th anniversary with its annual Sinulog Festival, a cultural and religious event in the Philippines. VISMIN is holding its festival at the Edmonton Convention Centre for the first time, and Kuchmak hopes to draw people beyond Edmonton’s Filipino community to experience the celebration.
The work is about keeping Filipino traditions alive here. “How do I make sure my grandchildren know this?” she says. “Someone’s got to do it.”
In 2018, Kuchmak co-founded Pontem Innovations, a technology and data company that works with organizations of all sizes. Kuchmak is most passionate about the small and medium-sized non-profits Pontem works with. Past projects include a cross-jurisdiction case management system for youth advocacy centres across Canada and a stock control system for the World Federation of Hemophilia to replace a cumbersome network of emails and spreadsheets to track medicines going to 100 countries.
Of her accomplishments, Kuchmak is particularly proud of strengthening organizations that improve people’s lives. “They have to do so much with so little.”
This article appears in the November-December 2026 issue of Edify
