“What is consistently missing from authentic grassroots community development is the capital capacity for asset building. We need to understand and invest in the distinctive relationships, community assets and opportunity sites that offer great promise for a thriving future.”
Noni Session is a cultural anthropologist, community investor, and creative neighborhood ally.
As a third-generation West Oakland native who was raised by teachers and small business owners, Noni cut her academic teeth on the challenge of equitable economic development. As a Fulbright-Hays fellow she studied international humanitarian strategies for developing communities globally. Upon completing her doctoral work, she helped found several collective civic action networks, and after a run for city council, she saw a clear path to ameliorating resource disparities in her West Oakland community--building more cooperative networks and galvanizing opportunities for collective economic action.
Noni graduated cum laude from San Francisco State University with a double major in black studies and cultural anthropology. She earned her master’s degree in cultural anthropology from Cornell University. As a Ph.D. candidate in cultural anthropology at Cornell, Noni carried out her doctoral research on international humanitarianism in Nairobi and the Horn of Africa.
Organization
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, Oakland, CA
Area of Focus
Economic development
Fellowship Project
Create a corridor investment plan for West Oakland’s Historic 7th Street Corridor.