Felicia Dawson is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for POAH Communities, working as a liaison between the development team and property management around issues of community and resident engagement.
Felicia is responsible for supervising the Woodlawn Resource Center, a community center offering free social service support and workforce training for this South Side community in Chicago. She is working to duplicate the success of the Woodlawn Resource Center across the POAH portfolio, in large developments and other neighborhood revitalization projects. She also works closely with the Vice President of Community Improvement and the Director of Community Impact to establish local partnerships with creative, sustainable organizations that empower our residents toward opportunity.
Felicia joined POAH in April 2011 to develop government and community engagement strategies to successfully revitalize Woodlawn Park, a Choice Neighborhood Site in Chicago. She brought years of experience bridging the gap between community engagement programming and brick and mortar redevelopment—working as a Program Manager and Director at Bethel New Life, a local community investment organization in Chicago, then as a Program Officer for the Steans Family Foundation, and then as the Director of Community Building for The Community Builders.
She has a Master of Public Administration degree in Urban Administration and Nonprofit Financial Management from the University of Missouri Kansas City, and was named a 2017 University of Chicago Civic Leadership Academy Fellow. Felicia serves as a board member at the Illinois Housing Council.