You may know Miss Vernon as the township’s animal control officer

Jordana Faith Mross, recently crowned Miss Vernon 2021, may be familiar to Vernon residents she is also one of the township’s animal control officers as well as an employee at the township’s animal shelter.

Jordana is a 2020 honor society graduate from Sussex County Technical School. She recently completed her freshman year at Centenary University in Hackettstown, N.J., where she is majoring in criminal justice with a concentration in humane law with a minor in law and government.

She made the Dean’s List status both semesters. She is concurrently earning her animal control certification from Rowan University.

Jordana is also trained in equine investigation through the Humane Society of the United States.

She rode on the nationally acclaimed Centenary Equestrian Team, and currently rides and shows at Amelia Acres in Goshen, N.Y.

Jordana was a member of the national, criminal justice, and Spanish honor societies while at Sussex County Technical School, as well as a member of the fall 2019 tennis team, playing undefeated doubles for the season.

She has volunteered at the Vernon animal shelter since the fall of 2019, and now is a full-time employee. She has created a “feral to farm” program at the shelter that includes spaying, neutering, and medically attending to and then finding barn homes for the feral cat population in Sussex County and surrounding counties.

Mross is also the shelter’s website coordinator, photographing and writing the adoptable animals’ online profiles.

She will proudly represent Vernon in the Queen of the Fair pageant in early August.