Jessica Andors

Jessica Andors is the Executive Director of Lawrence CommunityWorks, a nonprofit community development corporation forging a network of residents and stakeholders dedicated to asset-building, mutual support, and collective action to transform and revitalize the city of Lawrence. Jessica was part of a team of community organizers that spearheaded the organization’s rebirth in 1999. Since then, LCW has grown from a staff of one and a deficit, to a $5 million organization with over 5,000 resident and stakeholder members, over $130 million invested in affordable housing, family asset building, community organizing and development, and numerous awards for its work. Jessica received her Master’s of City Planning degree from MIT, where she was honored for outstanding contributions to the intellectual life of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Previously, she worked in the New York and San Francisco nonprofit sectors after graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College. She has served on the boards of the Lawrence Teen Coalition, the Hope Street Youth Center, Team Summit youth program, the MA Association of Community Development Corporations, and the Essex Art Center; was a founding board member of Mill Cities Community Investments (a community development financial institution serving the Merrimack Valley), chaired the statewide MIDAS Collaborative, served on the Lawrence Mayor’s Rental Cost Task Force, and chaired the MassDevelopment Brownfields Advisory Group. She currently serves on the Boards of the Lawrence Partnership (a public-private economic development collaborative), and the Lawrence Alliance for Education (the Receivership Board for the Lawrence Public Schools); she also is an Ambassador for Eastern Bank. Jessica is bilingual in English and Spanish, a Lawrence resident, and the mother of the exuberant, beautiful Elias, who shares his mother’s love of books, food, and playing outside.