Odetta MacLeish-White is a twenty three year career professional in affordable housing, community development, and systemic change. Throughout her career she has: worked on systemic vacancy as Director of Engagement for the Center for Community Progress; led the TransFormation Alliance, a partnership of nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses working with residents to improve housing, transit and jobs access; supported comprehensive community stabilization efforts and nonprofit capacity around the country as a Senior Program Director with Enterprise Community Partners; and created affordable housing recommendations as staff director for Florida’s Affordable Housing Study Commission. She started her career as a developer building tax credit units and managing small commercial properties.

Each of these experiences has deepened Odetta’s understanding of the systemic barriers that hold back our communities from achieving shared prosperity and true community. She turns that understanding into impact by designing solutions and programs which center lived experiences, eliminate unhelpful processes, and challenge unconscious biases and confident racism. Odetta is focused on naming the root causes of inequality and inequity, and pointing out the interplay of power and privilege that hold inequity in place year after year. These lessons show up in her commitment to value systems that become sturdy frameworks for program design, community building, and trusting partnerships. Odetta earned her Juris Doctorate and LLM in International Law from Duke University School of Law, and her bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard-Radcliffe University.