| Loree
Jones, President and CEO
Loree Jones is the new President and CEO of AchieveAbility.
Most recently,
Loree was the Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia.
Prior to her position as Managing Director, she served
as Secretary of External Affairs for the City of Philadelphia
and was responsible for the City’s governmental
relations and legislative affairs. As First Deputy Managing
Director for the City, Loree served the citizens of
Philadelphia by supporting initiatives to improve the
delivery of social services and city services and coordinating
interagency operations and special projects. She is
most proud of her leadership role in executing “Project
Brotherly Love,” the City’s Hurricane Katrina
relief effort.
Prior to her recent positions, Loree served as Executive
Director of the African Studies Association, a non-profit
organization that is the largest scholarly association
for the study of Africa in the world. She was the first
person of African descent to hold this position. Loree
has served as an African studies instructor in the Department
of Sociology at Rider University and a teaching assistant
in the History Department at Princeton University.
Loree has served on the Board of Directors of Project
H.O.M.E.. She currently serves on the Police Athletic
League (PAL) board and the Philadelphia Workforce Investment
Board. She is an advisory board member and former co-president
of Operation Understanding, a non-profit organization
that fosters cross-cultural understanding through a
leadership-training program for high school students.
She is a founding board member of the Urban Education
Fund. Loree is a member of the Urban League of Philadelphia,
the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College,
the Philadelphia High School for Girls Alumnae Association,
and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
She was elected to the Executive Committee of the Council
of Administrative Officers of the American Council of
Learned Societies, a consortium of academic membership
organizations representing over 100,000 members, and
Nomination Committee of the National Humanities Alliance.
She has served on the Board of Directors of both the
New Jersey and Pennsylvania Councils on Compulsive Gambling.
She was a faculty advisor for the Douglass College Model
United Nations and a fellow for Princeton University’s
Mathey College Fellows Program. In 1998, she was elected
Democratic Committee Person in Philadelphia’s
8th Ward, 13th Division.
Loree holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from
Spelman College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude,
and a Master of Arts degree in History from Princeton
University. She studied in Dakar, Senegal while in college
and later conducted graduate research in Senegal at
Cheikh Anta Diop Université in Dakar, where she
worked in French and Wolof. While studying in Senegal,
Loree volunteered at Africare, an international non-governmental
agency that provides development assistance to Africa.
She is the recipient of the Urban League of Philadelphia’s
2003 Whitney M. Young, Jr. Young Leader Award and is
identified as one of “10 People Under 40 to Watch
in 2006” by the Philadelphia Tribune Magazine.
In 2006, Woodrock, Inc. honored Loree for her commitment
to diversity and cross-cultural understanding. She was
selected to participate in the British American Project.
She recently returned from an Eisenhower Fellowship
in South Africa, where she studied how South African
municipalities provide social services. The Eisenhower
Fellowships is a prestigious, international exchange
program for emerging leaders.
Thanking Jac Ferber
AchieveAbility wishes well and thanks Jacques Ferber,
our former Executive Director, for his many years of
service and all his contributions to AchieveAbility.
Jac has retired after 16 years in leadership as Executive
Director.
Jac first
came to AchieveAbility as a member of its board of directors
in 1987 and later served as president of the board.
Prior to coming to AchieveAbility, he had a career in
public accounting, law and real estate development.
As Executive Director from 1992 to 2008, he piloted
the organization through an award winning period of
remarkable growth, from serving 45 families in 1992
to currently serving over 150 families. Under him, AchieveAbility
became a leader in housing and community development
in West Philadelphia. Under Jac's stewardship, AchieveAbility
developed 132 of the almost 200 units it has developed
and the 10 units of homeownership houses slated to be
completed in the early summer of 2008. With Jac at the
helm, AchieveAbility became a United Way Community Impact
Partner and vastly expanded its social services programs.
Jac ushered in the AchieveAbility After School Program,
the AchieveAbility Technology Center, the Housing for
Home Ownership Program and AchieveAbility's Drug and
Alcohol Counseling Program. Jac was also instrumental
in the development of the AchieveAbility Family Self-Sufficiency
Continuum, metrics that measure a family's progress
in education, parenting, personal development, housing,
and finances. This measurement tool, unique to AchieveAbility,
has been recognized as model way of balancing encouragement,
support and accountability for families working toward
permanent self-sufficiency.
In 2003, Jac received the Executive Director of the
Year award from United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Also in 2003, Community College of Philadelphia presented
him an award for Outstanding Contributions to Higher
Education and the Philadelphia Area Coalition for Responsible
Investment honored AchieveAbility with its Investing
for the Common Good Award. In 2004, the Greater Philadelphia
Chamber of Commerce recognized AchieveAbility through
its Small Business Excellence Awards as the Nonprofit
Organization of the Year. In 2006, the Philadelphia
Foundation honored AchieveAbility with its Good Governance
Award.
Jac received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from
Bucknell University, his MBA from the University of
Michigan and his law degree from the Delaware Law School
of Widener University. | 
