Ebonie Simpson spent two summers fostering her passion for gender equity through DukeEngage programs in New York City and Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her post-Duke path has focused on creating paths for women in policy-making. She has even worked in leadership roles at Lower East Side Girls Club, the very organization where she interned during the summer of 2010 during DukeEngage New York!
Today, Ebonie is the Executive Director at The New Majority NYC, an organization dedicated to empowering women to run for public office.
Why did you choose to do the Moxie Project in New York, and the DukeEngage program in Belfast?
I was an intern at the Women’s Center when I was a student, and it was an extremely transformative experience. Through that internship, I created and taught a house course and led an initiative that encouraged more women to run for student government positions — at the time, there was a very small percentage of women in the student government.
There was this initiative called Running Start to help young people bring this type of training to their campuses. It’s based on this idea that if you run while you’re in college, you’re more likely to run as an adult, creating that pipeline for women to political leadership.
The Moxie Project was a Women’s Center’s initiative. [Led by Ada Gregory, who was director of the Women’s Center at the time, the Moxie Project became DukeEngage New York its second year]. It was perfect for me because I would be able to continue to do work that was rooted in women’s leadership, women’s politics, reproductive justice.
The reason why I was interested in DukeEngage Belfast was because I studied policy, and it was really explicitly about policy. They also had work specifically around women and girls. There was a women’s center and a women’s policy lab, and I knew I wanted to work in those two places.
What was the most meaningful part of your DukeEngage experience (personally, academically, or professionally)?
The Lower East Side Girls Club — where I was placed during DukeEngage New York —has literally become my family. One of the women that I spent a lot of time with during my internship, she kind of adopted me. She became my mom, and to this day she calls herself my “New York mom.” Whenever my biological mom comes to town, we get brunch together with her. And later on when I worked at the Girls Club, she remained that figure for me through all these years. That was just a super profound gift that came from the internship. Of course, the friends you make through the program and otherwise are special too, but that was a deeply personal relationship that I’m grateful for.
What are you doing now academically/professionally?
For the first time, I’m actually in the full realm of politics. I am now the executive director of The New Majority NYC, an organization that helps women run in and win local elections in New York City. I became involved back in 2021 as a volunteer, and then I joined their leadership council. I was very passionate about their work, and it connected to all the things that I cared about.
And then one of my mentors who was on the board reached out and said “Hey, we’re looking for a new ED and you should consider it.” At first I wasn’t sure because I was really enjoying grad school, and I thought I might get my PhD. But I thought about it some more, of course, here I am!
Did DukeEngage influence your academic or career path? If so, how?
After Duke, I did a policy fellowship with the city called New York City Urban Fellows — there’s been a few alums who’ve done it — which was incredible. While I was there, I stayed involved with The Girls Club as a mentor and fundraiser. And then around 2016, the Executive Director came up to me at one of their events and told me that they were looking for someone to run their government relations, and was wondering if I would be interested.
So I ended up going to work at the Girls Club! It was really this dream opportunity for me because I got to stay in the policy space and be in the real world by working with government officials. I got to really create amazing things like an initiative by the city council that created a program for young people that helped them create their own government. This connected to the kind of work that I did at Duke when I was helping women run, and I got to find a way to carry that on. And then in 2020, during the pandemic, I became co-executive director of the Girls Club after the former ED retired.
Do you have a specific lesson learned from your DukeEngage experience that still holds true today? If so, what was it?
I think DukeEngage teaches you a sense of resilience. This program is about doing good and learning to contribute where you can. Its focus is on contributing to building a larger sustainable movement or infrastructure, and during those six to eight weeks, you’re there to help make an impact and to facilitate the work that’s already being done. But at the same time, it’s okay if the problem is not fixed in that one experience — sometimes that’s actually the way things are.
I think that is a big lesson I learned that helped me with the idealization that comes with being a young person. But there was still this sense of hope, and that I did something, and I can do something.
Another one that comes to mind is the importance of history, especially stories and storytelling. In particular, it is important to not project our values in certain environments, and to have respect for how things have come to be while trying to make an impact in the ways that the community seeks.
“DukeEngage gives you that practical and professional expertise. You actually learn on the ground, you’re able to create, and you’re able to use what you’ve learned in the classroom and apply it to real world issues. You’re able to learn how to connect with people from different cultures, how to communicate, ask questions, listen, and develop a social competence. And I think that these are such essential values that you take with you as you advance in your life and career.”
Are you still connected to DukeEngage? If so, how and why?
There’s been a couple of ways I’ve been lucky enough to stay connected. In my former role as ED at The Girls Club, I got to host DukeEngagers at my old office. That was such an amazing and full-circle moment, and I got to do that for about three or four years. I’ve also been really lucky enough to be able to come back to Duke to speak to students and share my experience on a couple of different occasions. I just feel very honored and grateful every time I have the opportunity to do that, and I hope that folks have taken something away from it.
What’s one thing you want people to know about DukeEngage — in general, or about your particular experience?
There’s something about this kind of service learning experience that is so unique. You can do so many things during your summers in college — you could have gone to study abroad, you could have just summered, you could have interned at a bank. But DukeEngage gives you that practical and professional expertise. You actually learn on the ground, you’re able to create, and you’re able to use what you’ve learned in the classroom and apply it to real world issues. You’re able to learn how to connect with people from different cultures, how to communicate, ask questions, listen, and develop a social competence. And I think that these are such essential values that you take with you as you advance in your life and career. You learn things from this experience that you don’t get just from studying abroad.
DukeEngage is very special, and I’m really lucky that I went to a school that had a program like this.