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Molly Dow is a senior program manager at JFF. Based in the Oakland office, she works with the inclusive regional economic development team to design place-based strategies to transform workforce, education, and employment systems and produce more equitable outcomes for Californians.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

  • Urban and social policy
  • Research and human-centered design
  • Nonprofit strategy and communications
  • Community and economic development
  • Cross-sector collaboration

Molly has worked in the nonprofit and public spheres for more than seven years, supporting causes ranging from education and the arts to migration and community development. She came to JFF after her graduate studies, where she collaborated on projects such as building an updatable, advocacy-focused database of state and county immigration legislation for the New York Immigration Coalition; conducting research around healthy housing, water recycling, urban infrastructure, and corruption; and co-hosting an international symposium on representation in migration policy and practice.

Earlier in her career, Molly worked in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, where she grew up. She got her professional start in community services and farmworker support on California’s rural central coast and has since worked on K-12 education initiatives with Education Pioneers and Scholar Co., as well as artist empowerment programs in Oakland, and internationally in Haiti and Kenya, with PeaceTones.

Molly has been a fellow at the New York City Council Progressive Caucus and at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Escuela de Arte Útil. She is also a member of SPUR, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.