Summer 2023 Oramenta Newsome Community Development Fellowship
 

2023 Oramenta Newsome Community Development Fellowship

The 2023 Oramenta Newsome Community Development fellowship features six fellows and six nonprofits that exemplify LISC’s commitment to make the District and region a more inclusive, equitable and prosperous place for all. As we continue to face climate-related challenges, the theme of this year's fellowship is "Sustainability and Community Development."

The fellowship was developed in Oramenta Newsome’s honor, who served as Executive Director of LISC DC for nearly 25 years. She dedicated decades to making Washington, DC an inclusive, community-driven, and equitable city that benefited neighborhood residents. With this fellowship, we are creating a lasting legacy and honoring Oramenta’s commitment to community development. Below are the six nonprofit partners:

  • Emerald Cities Collaborative is a national nonprofit network of organizations working together to advance a sustainable environment while creating sustainable, just and inclusive economies with opportunities for all. ECC develops energy, green infrastructure and other sustainable development projects. This includes developing the economic infrastructure for family-supporting wages and career paths for residents of low-income communities of color, as well as contracting opportunities for women, BIPOC and other disadvantaged businesses.
  • Mi Casa, Inc. is a nonprofit affordable housing developer and envisions a world where families and individuals have access to affordable and sustainable housing. Their mission is to provide affordable housing in the Washington, DC area to foster healthy and thriving communities. Mi Casa also provides development consultant services to community and tenant organizations.
  • The Capital Market is a community-led collective that provides healthy, affordable food options for their neighbors. They support the growth of local businesses and farms owned and operated by people of color through a number of programs, including farmers markets.
  • Jubilee Housing has a mission to build diverse, compassionate communities that create opportunities for everyone to thrive. They envision a city and a world where access to basic resources and opportunities are available to all people and where people live out these opportunities in the context of supportive community.
  • Friends of Anacostia Park is a Ward 8-based nonprofit that is working to enrich the lives of DC residents by preserving Anacostia Park and connecting surrounding communities to its redevelopment. They envision a clean Anacostia Park that supports a vibrant ecosystem and the wellness of nearby communities. 
  • Manna Inc. offers and advocates for quality, equitable, safe and sustainable housing by preserving and creating affordable for-sale and rental housing and providing pathways for long-term homeownership. Manna is people-centric and effective in their work to narrow the racial wealth gap and stabilize neighborhoods.

The LISC fellows bring a wide range of perspectives and diverse skill sets to their role. The fellows were chosen based on their passion for sustainability, community engagement, and commitment to equitable development. From May – July, each fellow worked full time for their respective nonprofit partner and supported a variety of “green” and sustainability-related projects.  

Meet the Fellows

Jessica Amaya-Zuniga is a recent graduate from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Global Health. She is a Washington, D.C. native from Ward 1. As an Oramenta Newsome Fellow, Jessica worked at Mi Casa, Inc. and worked on a variety of projects related to green initiatives and how federal funds could be used for Mi Casa’s programs and projects. Jessica enjoys collaborating with youth and using sports and mentorship skills to make an impact on development in a positive way. Her interests include traveling, physical and mental health, advocacy against racial and economic inequalities, and social and economic development.

Mia Arrington is a graduate of Villanova University with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a minor in Africana Studies. She is a Prince George’s County, Maryland native. As an Oramenta Newsome Fellow, Mia worked at The Capital Market on several initiatives related to food justice, weekly farmer’s markets, and communications. One highlight of Mia’s summer was presenting to the District Heights City Commission on The Capital Market’s Healthy Foods Community Conversation and Walk Audit events.  In the future, Mia plans to work in HCED strategy, policy analysis, and program implementation, and connect underserved communities to financial and technological resources.

Ranekqwa Edwards joined the Fellowship as a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She received her Master’s in Social Work with a concentration on community action and social planning/policy. As an Oramenta Newsome Fellow, she has been working with Emerald Cities Collaborative on their BIPOC Contractor Incubator. The BIPOC Contractor Incubator is essentially a one stop shop community resource that offers energy efficient (EE) networking, training, and consumer visibility. Her primary role pertaining to this project was assisting in strategic planning (what it would look like), community outreach (who needed to be invited to the table), and social media marketing (fliers, social media post, presentations).

Nagea Kirkley is an Alumna of Howard University class of 2023 where she double majored in International Affairs and Community Development while minoring in French from Atlanta, Georgia. With the goal of working in international community development, Nagea has taken the opportunity to learn more about the field by gaining hands on experience starting with local D.C. nonprofit, Friends of Anacostia Park, through the Oramenta Newsome Community development program. In this program, Nagea managed the FoAP 2023 residency where 13+ members from the ward 8 community is hired to teach the community skills that they know. This ranged from cooking classes and Biking for seniors to skating lessons and reiki healing sessions overall resulting in 130+ hours of community capacity building and 2 late skate events. Nagea is grateful for her new LISC and FoAP family!

Haki Johnson is a Takoma Park, Maryland Native, with a background in planning and engineering. At LISC, he worked with Manna inc to assist with the S Street development project and gathered mortgage information to assist their housing ownership education team. Before the fellowship, Haki worked as an Engineering Consultant and has experience in spatial data analysis. Recently, Haki obtained a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Haki is particularly interested in the connection between housing and placemaking that makes sustainable communities.

Adia Reed is a former strategy consultant specializing in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Adia’s foray into the world of community development and reinvestment, she honed her skills at a Global Consulting firm where she worked on many multibillion dollar high profile acquisitions. During her time as an Oramenta Newsome Fellow, Adia worked with Jubilee Housing and gained valuable skills and experience. Her first introduction into the world of community development came at an early age through the work she was able to observe her father lead in the vibrant Jamaica, Queens community surrounding her. She brings the same intellectual fever and strategic ability to complete complex deals into the world of community development. She’s excited to partner with LISC and its capacity partners while making her unique and impactful mark on the DC development world. When not “professionally solutioning,” she enjoys spending her time serving on various boards with youth wellness and educational advancement focuses and touring as a member of Afro-Caribbean dance troupe.