Jama was appointed by the Clackamas and Multnomah County Board of Commissioners to replace Shemia Fagan, who was elected Oregon Secretary of State in 2021.

Jama graduated from high school just as the civil war erupted, and he lived as a refugee for several years before arriving in San Diego in 1998.

He staffed the front desk at the Portland DoubleTree Hotel and helped other newly arrived refugees adapt to life in the United States as a case manager at Lutheran Community Services Northwest, eventually receiving a bachelor's degree in sociology from Marylhurst University.

[7] In 2002, Jama co-founded the Center for Intercultural Organizing, now Unite Oregon, after witnessing racial incidents in Portland following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

[citation needed] Jama was an advocate for the passage of Oregon ballot measure 110 which sought to decriminalize the use of drugs such as heroin.