Title: Executive Director
Workplace: Jefferson Street Center
Age: 39
For nearly a decade, Amanda August has helped coordinate care for some of northern Delaware’s most vulnerable residents. The executive director has not only taken Jefferson Street Center from a volunteer-based organization to a staff-led community driver, but also spent five years as an independent living coordinator for Wilmington’s West End Neighborhood House where she worked as a case manager assisting foster children aging out of care. Since joining Jefferson Street Center as its first part-time staff member in 2021, August has grown the nonprofit to three full-time employees who now work with external partners on new initiatives like bike lanes and an upcoming summer market series.
She took classes at Delaware Technical and Community College, leveraging that time to earn both a bachelor’s degree as well as a master’s degree, the latter of which focused on social justice and community organizing. She also recently passed a professional community economic developer exam and this summer received an equity and opportunity award from the National Health Corps. August also completed an Executive Certificate Program at UPenn for Social Impact Strategy last year.
She worked a variety of jobs between high school and college, where she also volunteered through Americorps at Big Brothers Big Sisters. While at Arizona’s Prescott College, the first-generation college grad also dove into community organizing work with fellow students, fighting against anti-immigrant rhetoric and raising scholarship funding for undocumented students. But it was her work with West End Neighborhood House that she said opened her eyes to systemic injustices.
In addition to the impact she makes professionally, August volunteers for many other organizations including Habitat for Humanity New Castle County, as well as other causes on Wilmington’s West Side, such as Better Block Wilmington and United Neighbors. She co-founded Women Bike Wilmington and in her free time adores the outdoors and interior decorating.
