Our Leadership

Odessa P. Jackson, Esq.

EVP, General Counsel, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer

Odessa serves as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for United Way Worldwide (UWW), where she provides legal counsel and leads governance, compliance, human  resources,  and  administration  programs to align mission and departmental goals across the organization.

Before joining UWW, Odessa served as inaugural General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Board Secretary at the University of the Sciences, providing legal guidance; as the Principal Deputy General Counsel at Howard University, where she managed operations, staff attorneys, and served as a consultant to the Board of Trustees. Odessa’s other experience includes nearly 20 years of civil and criminal litigation experience as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and an Assistant
U.S. Attorney for both the District of Columbia and Maryland.

As a graduate of American University, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a juris doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. At the University of North Carolina, she was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, the University’s oldest and highest honorary society.