FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Gillian Linden
703.402.6507
gillian@rosengrouppr.com
LAS VEGAS (September 9, 2022)—Maria Tucker, Ph.D., has been named the executive director of the newly launched Las Vegas campus of Jeremiah Program (JP)—a national nonprofit with one of the most successful strategies for disrupting generational poverty among single mothers and their children.
Dr. Tucker has been an executive leader and consultant for 25 years, partnering with nonprofits/NGOs, colleges and universities, and government entities. Through fundraising efforts, she has mobilized more than $14 million for community programs in the fields of education, youth development, environmental justice, crimmigration, and community health. She has developed evidence-based, sustainable, programs and project solutions in the U.S. and abroad. At Pomona College, Dr. Tucker was founding director of the school’s first community partnerships center, launching twelve projects with 50+ community partners. She also re-organized and re-invigorated a pre-college program for first-generation and low-income students, leading to hundreds of students being admitted to colleges and universities. Dr. Tucker holds a Ph.D. in environmental sociology from the University of Michigan School of Environment and Sustainability and a Master of Public Policy from Claremont Graduate University.
“As we launch the Las Vegas campus, we needed a leader who was grounded both in the community and in JP’s mission. Maria was an exceptional candidate to serve in that role,” said Chastity Lord, President and CEO, Jeremiah Program. “Time and time again, Maria has proved she can meet communities where they’re at as she leads them through the ideation, design, implementation and measurement and learning stages of organizational planning. We are thrilled to welcome her to the JP family and excited to get our Las Vegas campus up and running.”
In the executive director role, Dr. Tucker will set the tone for the new Las Vegas campus and serve as a champion for JP’s two-generation mission. She is responsible for achieving the annual fundraising goals of the campus, growing strong community partnerships, working closely with a local community board of trustees to build community engagement, and recruiting, developing and managing a team that plans for a thriving family experience.
“As a single mom and first-generation college graduate myself, I have lived the JP experience. Supportive networks and connections matter, and I was lucky enough to have a group of people who believed in me and my success early on, and that greatly benefited my son as well,” said Tucker. “I’m thrilled to bring the full force of JP’s value proposition to Las Vegas and create community-wide impact to uplift moms and their kids, giving them strong hope for a brighter future. It’s a great moment for JP to be here.”
Jeremiah Program Las Vegas launched in 2022 to help serve single mothers and their families in the community. Over 27% of Nevada’s family households are headed by a single parent, and nearly 1 in every 3 single mother families live in poverty.
About Jeremiah Program:
Jeremiah Program (JP) is a national organization whose mission is to disrupt the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time. JP believes the impacts of generational poverty require the centering of the family unit through a two-generation (2Gen) approach. By investing simultaneously in a mother’s vision for her personal and professional goals and the education of her children, she simultaneously reauthors her family’s outcome as well her community’s –proof points matter. In 2021, JP supported 1,100 moms and children across seven cities in Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Fargo, ND-Moorhead, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Rochester, MN; and St. Paul, MN. In the fall of 2022, JP is launching two additional campuses in Baltimore, MD and Las Vegas, NV.