History Alum Called ‘Perfect Person to Help Put Us on Map for Reducing Poverty’

“Here’s why she’s the perfect person to help put us on the map for reducing poverty,” says the headline on a column by Lucy May at WCPO Cincinnati.

May is writing about Ohio University alum Vashti Rutledge ’00. Rutledge earned a B.A. in History from the College of Arts & Sciences.

Vashti Rutledge

Vashti Rutledge doesn’t have a typical Cincinnati hometown story.

Rutledge grew up going back and forth between her mom’s place in Bond Hill and her grandparents’ home in Kenwood, where she lived much of the time to attend school.

“I went to Swifton Primary, which doesn’t even exist anymore, and then went to Indian Hill,” she told me. “It has shaped my entire adult life.”

It also helped make Rutledge the perfect person to lead the new Cincinnati operations of the Family Independence Initiative, or FII.

GreenLight Cincinnati and The Greater Cincinnati Foundation announced Monday that FII is launching in Cincinnati immediately, fueled by $2.4 million from GreenLight and the foundation.

Read the entire column at WCPO.

Connect with Vashti Rutledge on LinkedIn.