Discipline: Literature – nonfiction

Jessica Posner Odede

Discipline: Literature – nonfiction
Region: Brooklyn, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 2014

Jessica Posner Odede is the cofounder of Shining Hope for Communities, a non-profit that combats extreme poverty and gender inequality in Kibera, Africa's largest slum. Shining Hope runs the Kibera School for Girls,Kibera's first free school for girls, as well as a community health clinic, clean toilet initiative, youth and community education, and economic development initiatives. Posner Odede is a nationally recognized social entrepreneur and activist. She won the 2010 Do Something Award and was named "America's top-world changer 25 and under" live on VH1. Posner Odede also received the prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in May 2009 with honors in African-American Studies. She is fluent in Swahili.

Studios

Adams

Jessica Posner Odede worked in the Adams studio.

Given to the MacDowell Association by Margaret Adams of Chicago, the half-timbered, stuccoed Adams Studio was designed by MacDowell Fellow and architect F. Tolles Chamberlin ca. 1914. Chamberlin was primarily a painter, but also provided designs for the Lodge and an early renovation of the main hall. The studio’s structural integrity was restored during a thorough renovation in…

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