Heeding the Call

Marie Nelson MPP 1998

Asked to describe her boss, Jesse Jackson, Sr., in one word, Marie Nelson doesn’t hesitate: visionary.

He’s also extremely busy — mediating labor disputes, re-enrolling expelled students, and flying around the world in his official role as U.S. special envoy for Africa and in his unofficial role as human rights activist and international diplomat.

So when Nelson, who serves as the executive director of the public policy institute at Jackson’s Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition (RPC), as well as his principal foreign policy adviser, describes herself, it’s no surprise that the word is "versatile."

"There are no typical days," she said from her Georgetown office, where she also writes op-eds and plans the logistics for her boss’s trips. "It’s rare that I get the chance to spend the day working on one issue or project. By the end of the day, I’ll have fielded at least 50 calls and as many e-mails."

Nelson’s road to Jackson’s nonprofit has been nearly as atypical as her days. A former journalist at Africa News Service and producer at a PBS affiliate, she moved to the United States from Liberia when she was eight — leaving behind the men in her family (except her non-Liberian father), who had been jailed following one of the country’s many bloody coups. Difficult memories, she says, that have shaped who she is today.

"I know how to live with and without money," she says. "When my family moved from Liberia, I lived in a house with 26 other people, where we struggled to make ends meet. I am grateful that, given some of these experiences, I was able to obtain a college and graduate school education. I know that these experiences have influenced me to work in public service organizations."

Which could account for Jackson’s handpicking Nelson to work for him even before her Kennedy School diploma was in hand. The day after she turned in her PAE, Nelson received a call from his office and by the end of the week, was in DC, interviewing with the reverend. She signed on and for the three months before graduation, commuted between Cambridge and DC.

The hectic schedule seems to have paid off. Jackson has depended heavily on Nelson. In April 1999, for instance, when he met with President Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia to seek the release of three U.S. POWs, Nelson helped craft his message and was one of only six people allowed to visit the POWs and join in a prayer circle with her boss and Milosevic. Since then, she’s traveled extensively with Jackson, including an emotional — but inspiring — trip to Ghana for the African American Summit.

"As we were checking out of the hotel and heading for the airport," she says, recalling the summit, "a young Liberian man asked to speak with me. He heard that Reverend Jackson was coming and wanted to talk to him about his case. He was living in Ghana in a refugee camp. When I asked why he had waited so long before coming to see us, he told me that the only clothes he had were the ones he was wearing. He had washed them and laid them out to dry, but it had rained for two days, and he had nothing else to wear until they dried.

"This," Nelson explains, "was one of the many times I have cried trying to do this work."