Jessica Andors works with Lawrence Community Works (LCW), a nonprofit community development corporation dedicated to the revitalization of this great City. She is part of a team—led by LCW Executive Director Bill Traynor and his wife Deb Fox—that spearheaded the rebirth of LCW in 1999. Since that time, LCW has grown from a staff of one and a deficit, to a $2.5 million organization with over 3,000 resident and stakeholder members and over $30 million invested in affordable housing, family asset building, youth development, and network organizing. At LCW, Jessica has worked as a Community Organizer, Program Developer, and Director of Resource Development, and is now Deputy Director. She lives on Jackson Terrace in Lawrence, in the house where "Casey At the Bat" was written, and loves it.
Jessica graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1993, and received her Master of City Planning degree from MIT in June of 1999, where she was honored for outstanding contributions to the intellectual life of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Previously, Jessica had five years of experience in the New York and San Francisco nonprofit sectors, in program coordination, fundraising, and program development. She started her professional life in the City as a summer intern for the Lawrence Office of Economic Development, and has served on the boards of the Lawrence Teen Coalition, the Hope Street Youth Center, and the Essex Art Center (current member and past president); she is also chair of the MA state-wide asset-building collaborative, MIDAS. Jessica is bilingual in English and Spanish.