Adaku works to advance Hester Street’s communications and development strategy, and assists with event planning. She also supports external communications for HST’s community-based clients. Throughout her undergraduate career, she balanced multiple roles across communications, publishing, and higher education. In 2018, she interned as a summer Cashin Fellow at LISC NY where she picked up skills in grant-writing and community outreach. Adaku co-led an end-of-summer panel for NYC community development leaders, highlighting the importance of crafting language that accurately represents neighborhood conditions for vulnerable New Yorkers through strategic grant-writing. Two years later, she rejoined as a Communications Assistant, interviewing and spotlighting small business owners on their paths to recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Adaku is an alumna of Amherst College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English & Black Studies. Most recently, Adaku worked at Each Day Communications where she supported strategic communications for mission-based clients committed to advancing racial justice, educational equity, and youth career pathways, respectively: Black Wealth Data Center, redefinED Atlanta, and Shared Lane Services, among others. Concurrently, she interned at Penguin Random House as an editorial assistant, a longtime dream accomplished during her final semester of college.