Jestine Ware, Director of Development & Communications

Jestine A. Ware joined Woodstock Institute as Director of Development and Communications in 2025. She plans and implements comprehensive fundraising and communications strategies to support the Institute’s mission, research, data analysis, and advocacy campaigns. Jestine leads proposal design, development, and reporting for grant-funded programs, cultivates and manages funder relationships, and collaborates with community partners.

Jestine has years of nonprofit experience, including as Director of Development and Communications at South Suburban PADS (SSPADS) in the South Suburbs of Chicago and as Associate Director of Grants Management at Heartland Alliance. At SSPADS and Heartland Alliance, she raised millions of dollars from private foundations, corporations, and individuals. She specializes in fundraising on behalf of the most marginalized people across Chicagoland (low-income Black and Brown communities; LGBTQIA+ folks; unhoused people; those living with health, economic, and environmental disparities; and forcibly displaced people) to support programs that provide health, human services, housing, economic empowerment, advocacy, and policy change.

Jestine has spent years as a full-time and freelance writer and editor. She co-authored the books “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 100 Real-Life Tales of Black Girl Magic” and “Rebel Girls Celebrate Pride.” She has worked at small domestic and international publishing houses, such as Rebel Girls and Cricket Media, in communications and at small grassroots organizations, such as Assata’s Daughters, in fundraising. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English Creative Writing from Otterbein University in Ohio and her Master’s degree in Rhetoric and Composition from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Phone: O (312) 368-0310 x2023