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Jessica R. Dreistadt, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, researcher, organizer, project designer, activist, and entrepreneur who helps feminist leaders and community organizations recognize and realize their unique creative brilliance. She is the founding director of The Fruition Coalition through which she organizes the Women’s Creative Leadership Network, facilitates Club Fruition, and coordinates The Fruition Academy. 

 

The author of 11 books about leadership and social change, Jessica teaches the artistry of feminist leadership, progressive social change, and nonprofit management through two newsletters–Love, Lead, Create! The Artistry of Feminist Leadership and Seeds and Sunshine: Creating Flourishing Organizations and Communities–and two blogs: Jesstopia and The Activist’s Muse. Her writing can also be found on Huffington Post, Psych Central, and elephant journal.

 

Jessica earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at Eastern University. Through her dissertation, entitled Portraits of Women Leaders: Solidarity and Social Division in Progressive Social Movement Organizations, she explored how women leaders engage similarities and differences as they construct and experience solidarity. Jessica also earned an MS in Nonprofit Management from Eastern University, an MA in Sociology from Lehigh University, and a BS in Marketing from DeSales University. She taught in the Division of Business at DeSales University for 11 years and in the Pan African Studies Community Education Program at Temple University for three years. Jessica has also taught in a variety of community-based and online settings and has presented at local, regional, and international conferences.

 

Through her 20+-year career in the nonprofit sector, Jessica served as the executive director of a family center network and as the director of a shelter for families experiencing homelessness and a community development corporation. She has also conducted research and organized advocacy campaigns to influence public policy, developed community-wide plans, and developed strategic plans for a variety of nonprofit organizations. Jessica’s areas of expertise include feminist leadership, progressive social movements and social justice, leadership of community-based organizations, organizational development, writing, and research design. 

 

You can learn more about Jessica by visiting her website and viewing her curriculum vitae and teaching philosophy.