Jovida Hill joined the administration of Mayor James F. Kenney in February 2016 as the Administrator in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (the office has since been renamed the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). In June 2016, she was elected to serve as Executive Director of the Philadelphia Commission for Women, a post created by a ballot initiative put to Philadelphia voters in the May 2015 Primary Election. The following year, she was appointed to serve as Executive Director of the city’s first Office of Engagement for Women.
The Office of Engagement for Women promotes civic, educational, and economic policies that enhance the lives of women and girls from all walks of life. Through public engagement, the office and the Commission for Women make recommendations to the Mayor, City Council and other policy makers that advance social justice, equal rights, and economic opportunities. The office also manages the Philadelphia Commission for Women.
Jovida is an award-winning writer and producer of more than 200 films and videos for education, broadcast, marketing, and training for Kinocraft Media, Inc. Her work has included the civil rights series In the Land of Jim Crow which documents poignant first person accounts of the African American experience in the pursuit of justice and equality; the series Reinventing Democracy, which celebrates the role of civic engagement in expanding civil rights and social justice, hosted by historian Douglas Brinkley; the K-5 civic engagement series Community Helpers; and the series Celebrate that introduces children in grades K-5 to multicultural celebrations that herald our differences to amplify our similarities. Her clients included Simon and Schuster, Coronet Films, Better Business Productions, Lou Reda Productions, The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, the School District of Camden New Jersey, and NFL Films among others.
She has been awarded five CINE Golden Eagle Awards from the Council on Nontheatrical Events including her award-winning “Driving While Black or Brown” Public Service Announcement for the American Civil Liberties Union, her video for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision and for the video “Talking About Your Cancer: A Parent’s Guide” for Fox Chase Cancer Center. She has received honors from the Chicago Children’s Film Festival, and a 2007 Art and Change Award from the Leeway Foundation for “Grandma’s Kids” that sheds light on kinship care.
The Office of Engagement for Women along with the Commission has established pay equity, dignity for incarcerated women, enforcement of the domestic workers Bill of Rights, maternal mortality disparities, human trafficking awareness, sexual assault awareness, and access to menstrual hygiene supplies for students and for women impacted by the criminal justice system as core advocacy priorities.
Prior to joining the Kenney administration, Jovida served on the Democratic Executive Committee of the 8th Ward for 17 years and serves on the board of directors of the Black Women’s Health Alliance and the Logan Square Neighborhood Association.
