Join us at our next JCYP Coffee & Community on Wednesday, November 6th. 
We will hear from Marguerite Oestreicher, Executive Director of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. Marguerite will share how the organization is working to serve the community and share with us their recent project, Rising Oaks. Too many communities for working families exist in places with inadequate public transportation, forcing people to rely on unreliable transit to get to jobs that are hours away from where they live—inevitably, this creates instability in employment, and therefore in housing. Food deserts and lack of access to healthcare increase risk of illness. Location, in short, is vital to creating a thriving community. Join us to learn about how this housing project will make a positive impact to Jefferson Parish!

Meet Marguerite: 

Ms. Oestreicher joined New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH) in 2014, serving as its first Chief Advancement Office, and in 2019, she assumed the Executive Director leadership role. The affiliate serves a five parish area is best known for its homebuyer program, typically building about 20 homes each year. NOAHH is actively involved in long term disaster recovery work in multiple parishes and also operates a ReStore selling used furniture and construction materials as well as running a robust rental program of about 75 properties. Rounding out its portfolio of services, NOAHH also runs a  home repair services program, effecting repairs for about 100 elderly or disabled low income homeowners each year.
 
In addition to her work at NOAHH, Marguerite serves on the board of the Corporate Internship Leadership Institute (CILI), JEDCO’s Community Foundation Racial Equity & Reconciliation Committee, and on multiple committees with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), including Innovation, Disaster Recovery, Resource Development and others. She has a special passion for serving the elderly and those most in need and includes 4-legged friends in the mix.
 
Before joining NOAHH, Marguerite’s prior experience included Fundraising and Marketing for WSNC, a public radio station headquartered at Winston Salem State University and as a nonprofit consultant where her favorite consulting project involved secret shopping homeless shelters.  Before Katrina, she worked as a business development analyst at Intralox. This global manufacturing company makes application-specific modular plastic conveyor belts and systems for all industries. She had previously served as the first sales manager at nola.com, securing the company’s first quarter-million-dollar online sponsorship. Before joining nola.com, Marguerite was Vice President of Marketing for Hospitality Enterprises, a hotel and attractions company. She owned and operated Marguerite Oestreicher Fine Arts, a contemporary gallery and pioneer of the Warehouse Arts District. She was honored as New Orleans Businesswoman of the Year in 1997 and as a YLC Role Model.
 
Marguerite is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she earned her BA, majoring and graduating with honors in English, French, and German. She earned a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Salem College. In 2015, and completed the highly competitive ACCESS program at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. This specialized nonprofit leadership curriculum was developed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International.