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Nowak Fellowship

Honoring Our Founder

The Nowak Fellowship is one of three initiatives Reinvestment Fund supports to honor the legacy and memory of its founding Executive Director, Jeremy Nowak.

About the Fellowship

The Nowak Fellowship, housed at Reinvestment Fund, was established to support a pre-graduate school fellow considering a future career aligned with community economic development.

This gap year Fellowship was created to honor the memory and contributions of Jeremy Nowak, the founding CEO of Philadelphia-based Reinvestment Fund (originally, Delaware Valley Community Reinvestment Fund; later, The Reinvestment Fund). The fellowship supports a college graduate, contemplating graduate school, in an academic and career pursuit that gives honor to Jeremy’s interests and pursuits. The Fellowship will last two years.

Meet our Current and Past Fellows

 
 
Zoe Millstein
Jeremy Nowak Fellow
 
 
Camille Desierto
2022-24 Jeremy Nowak Fellow
 
 
Marci Bell
Policy Analyst II
 
 

“One of my most meaningful takeaways from this experience is the immense sense of worth I felt on this team. I can thank the wonderful analysts on Policy Solutions who continually reminded me of my value on the team, and in the work that we do. As I took on more assignments requiring skills that were entirely new to me, they helped me build a confidence I hadn’t known in many other professional spaces. With new responsibilities, I began to truly feel like an integral part of the team.”

Zoe Millstein, 2024 Nowak Fellow

→ Read Zoe’s full reflection.
 
 

“One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from working with Policy Solutions is the importance of humanizing data. Though most of our work is quantitative in nature, it is admirable to see how often our staff communicates with the client and local expertise to validate what we’re seeing in the data, and to ensure we are meeting their data needs so that they can effectively meet the needs of their target area/community.”

Camille Desierto, 2022 Nowak Fellow

→ Read Camille’s full reflection.
 
 

“Barriers to Homeownership was my most meaningful project for a variety of reasons. The project also had qualitative and quantitative aspects, helping increase my research skills in these areas…By exposing the inequities in homeownership by race and the challenges faced by potential first-time homebuyers, it felt like the report was contributing towards uplifting communities who have been previously denied homeownership opportunities.”

Marci Monaco-Vavrik, 2020 Nowak Fellow

→ Read Marci’s full reflection.

Discover Their Work:

 
 
Barriers to Homeownership
Read the Report
 
 
Capitalizing Childcare: The National Landscape of Grants, Loans, and Community Development Capital in Early Childhood Education
Read the Report
 
 
Unmet Promise: Reverse Mortgage Servicing Challenges and How to Preserve Housing Stability for Older Adults
Read the Report
 
 
A Road Map for Asset Based Investing in Central Appalachia
Read the Report

Fellowship Advisor

 
 
Ira Goldstein
Senior Advisor, Policy Solutions
215.574.5827