Molly Mattessich

Manager of Online Initiatives

Mali 02-04
Phone: (202) 293-7728 x 24
Email

Molly Mattessich launched and now manages the online platforms for the National Peace Corps Association, Africa Rural Connect.org and Peace Corps Connect.org, as well as NPCA’s social network that boasts over 26,000 members. Her specialities include marketing, branding, social media, communications, public relations, and business development.

Molly has caught the attention of major media outlets for her work on Africa Rural Connect, the online collaboration space where Peace Corps Volunteers, the African Diaspora, and others discuss rural agricultural development initiatives. Her interviews have been broadcast across the African continent on Voice of America in English, Hausa, and Swahili.

She presented Africa Rural Connect to Africa Gathering, a community of technology innovators and social entrepreneurs with ties to Africa, in London, England (October 2009), Nairobi, Kenya (December 2009) and Washington, DC (April 2010). She now serves as an Africa Gathering Ambassador in Washington, DC. In 2010, Molly presented Africa Rural Connect at a forum for African Diaspora community leaders in the Pacific Northwest at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She was also a panelist at the Seattle World Affairs Council event, “The Legacy of the Peace Corps.” She gives frequent presentations on social media, most recently at the DC Social Media Summit organized by the Center for Nonprofit Service and at the Young Leaders Forum that was part of the Secretary of State’s Global Diaspora Forum.

Her work on Africa Rural Connect is profiled in the 2010 book Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler of Forrester Research.

A leader in the local Returned Peace Corps Volunteer community for many years, Molly has served as Vice-President, Special Events Director, and New Members Director on the Board of the NPCA member group RPCV/W, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, DC. From 2002-2004, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. She speaks conversational French, Spanish, Bambara and Malinké.

Prior to NPCA, she worked as the Marketing Coordinator for Van Ness Feldman, P.C., an energy and environmental law and policy firm in Washington, DC, during which time she served as Co-Chair of the Capitol Chapter Future Leaders Roundtable of the Legal Marketing Association.

Molly is currently pursuing an MA in Communications at Johns Hopkins University. She earned a BA in psychology from Wellesley College. She served as Co-Chair of the Wellesley Women in Nonprofits network in Washington, DC from 2010-12, and as Treasurer of her alumnae class from 2006-11.

In 2010, she was named as one of “10 Changemakers to Follow on Twitter” by the Matador Network.

Notable Media Mentions

Social Media Marketing: Brand-powered social site is 4th-largest traffic source for nonprofit (MarketingSherpa 8/18/11)

‘Africa Rural Connect’ Winner Hopes to Empower Rural Communities (AllAfrica.com via America.gov, 1/20/11)

Ugandan Wins Africa Rural Connect Contest (Voice of America, 1/9/11)

Peace Corps organization launches ‘Africa Rural Connect’ to help farmers (Africa Good News, 3/26/10)

Africa Gathering Nairobi 2009 (White African blog, 12/21/09)

Crowdsourcing philanthropy — do the masses know best? (The Seattle Times, 10/13/09)

D.C. Start-Up Aims to Facilitate Loans With a Global Reach (The Washington Post, 10/1/09)

Cash for best business or farming idea for grabs (The Daily Nation, 9/9/09)

Former Peace Corps Volunteers Called Back to Service (US News and World Report, 8/26/09)

Grass-roots food initiative in Africa serves Clinton’s goals (The Christian Science Monitor, 8/7/09)