Sheena Wright, Esq.
President and CEO
Abyssinian Development Corp., New York City
Dedicated to serving her community in order to create positive changes for future generations, Sheena Wright, Esq., has worked with Abyssinian Development Corp. since 2002 as its president and CEO to improve social services, affordable housing and homeownership opportunities for Harlem residents, at the same time to enhance the educational prospects for the community?s youth. Under her leadership, ADC completed the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change?s permanent site, a state-of-the-art facility and the first high school built in Harlem in more than 50 years. Wright also initiated and oversees a Displacement Prevention campaign to keep low- and moderate-income families in Harlem. ?As a woman of faith, I attribute professional and personal achievement, first and foremost, to God. And in being a woman of faith, I am devoted to my community,? says Wright.
A native New Yorker and longtime Harlem resident, Wright began her career as an editorial assistant at The New York Times. She was general counsel and executive vice president of business development for Crave Technologies, a minority-owned software company, and a corporate associate at the law firms Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol. A graduate of Columbia College, she received a law degree from Columbia University School of Law. She is a member of the New York Bar Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and volunteers with Housing First!, Citizens Union and Bank of America?s National Community Advisory Committee; and was a volunteer teacher in B?langdalalu, Tanzania, with Operations Crossroads Africa.
Wright credits her humanitarian nature to her mother, Debra Fraser-Howze, founder of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. ?I?ve been motivated to inspire myown generation through community involvement and empowerment just as my mother did before me,? she says.
