Jodina Hicks is the President of Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania (VOAPA). In her role, Jodina has executive responsibility for over 180 staff serving vulnerable populations, primarily focused on health equity, community health, and housing. Before VOAPA, Jodina was Executive Director of UrbanPromise Ministries in Camden, NJ. Jodina began her community and missional based work with UrbanPromise in 1988, creating the StreetLeader program, which is a teen employment and leadership initiative, and the UrbanPromise Academy, which serves as an alternative high school for at-risk teens in Camden. Two thousand teens have been employed in Camden through the StreetLeader program, and it has since been replicated in 18 cities and countries. In 2000, she joined Public/Private Ventures, where she helped plan and launch the Amachi children of prisoner’s initiative and the Ready4Work national reentry model (President’s Reentry Initiative). Both Amachi and Ready4Work were highlighted in the White House’s State of the Union addresses and both led to the creation of new federal funding streams, with replications in all 50 states. In 2002, Jodina earned her Juris Doctor from Rutgers Law School (Camden).

Jodina served as Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the Safer Foundation in Chicago, which is the premier prisoner reentry program in the nation. Her policy work at Safer included the writing and passage of state and local legislation aimed at reducing barriers for formerly incarcerated individuals, writing federal recommendations and testimony (including for then U.S. Senator Obama) and contributing to the State’s blueprint policy book. Jodina was named in the top 100 Pennsylvania Non-Profit Leaders in 2022.