Jessica A. S. Letaw

I've lived in Ann Arbor ever since I moved here for grad school in architecture. I'm originally from Atlanta and Stone Mountain, Georgia, one of the Blackest cities in America and home to the 20th-century revival of the Ku Klux Klan, respectively.

I joined Ginsberg in summer 2025 as this academic year's Community Leader in Residence. That's going to mean any one of a bunch of different things, but I look forward to defining the role in relationship with Ginsberg's absolutely incredible staff. My community priorities as they relate to campus are student enfranchisement in local votes (for example: that most housing decisions are made locally, and local elections are decided in August...every two years?) and helping students deepen their relationship to this particular place, for as short or as long as they're here, through the lenses of Black and Indigenous history and community. 

As a longtime community organizer for housing and racial justice, I bring a lot of skills and experience to this role. I'm an experienced facilitator, particularly of difficult conversations around illuminating and dismantling whiteness and white supremacy. I believe in the role of (healthy/generative) conflict to help deepen our relationships to ourselves, each other, and our shared values. I've been in community organizing for a long time and know how to navigate the ever-shifting needs of nurturing relationships and logistics management. I love public speaking and how public conversations can expand the tools with which we can work with each other. I run two business partnerships and have founded a nonprofit, and while I don't necessarily love all aspects of business administration, those experiences me a lot of respect for the nuts and bolts of what it takes to make change work. I work to illuminate white supremacy, patriarchy and classism in each area of my work, and I'm looking forward to finding language and common ground around that here. 

Given most of my work is located at the intersections of place, race, and history, I'm hoping I can help add dimension and meaning-making to this Ginsberg's first year in its amazing new space. Most of all, I'm looking forward to getting to know this incredible group of individuals better, and expanding my community to include everyone here!