Monica Lee Ridgeway is the newly appointed Executive Director of Life Development Corporation (LDC) a 501c3. She has served on the advisory board since 2019 as the Resource Development Coordinator and has worked on several Health and Equity Initiatives centering Black and Brown health.

Ms. Ridgeway serves as an Advisory Board Member on the Emory COMPASS Coordinating Center (ECCC) through the Emory Centers for Public Health Training and Technical Assistance at Rollins School of Public Health and Gilead Sciences, Inc. Through this role, she works alongside collaborating organizations: the Southern AIDS Coalition, the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, and Wake Forest School of Divinity to end the HIV epidemic in the south.

Ms. Ridgeway was named one of the 40 for 40 Champions and Trailblazers honored for her work and contribution in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She was recognized and celebrated as one of the 100 Black Advocates in the 2021 POZ Magazine. She was recognized and honored in 2020 for the 50 under 50 Alumni Award, through the Alabama State University Division of Institutional Advancement.

Ms. Ridgeway has served as a speaker, presenter and panelist with national, regional, and state organizations such as: NASTAD, NMAC, National Harm Reduction Coalition, The Georgia Harm Reduction Coalition, the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s HIV/AIDS Division, Kentucky Population Health Institute, Emmaus Ministries Inc., Paducah Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Black Girls Conquer All, and Life Development Corporation, Inc. (LDC).

Ms. Ridgeway is a proud graduate of the Alabama State University, where she attained a Bachelor of Arts in English. She earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Walden University. Monica has certifications in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Inclusive and Ethical Leadership from the University of South Florida (USF).

Ms. Ridgeway is a native of Paducah, KY where she graduated from Paducah Tilghman High School in 2003. For 13 years, she lived in Montgomery, Alabama also known as the “Home of Leaders and Martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement.” In 2016, she decided to relocate back to Kentucky, where she has created and developed programing, policies, in Health and Equity, prevention intervention strategies, and elimination plans for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and Opioid Drug Overdoses.

When Monica does not have her hands in advocacy work, you will catch her reading a science fiction novel, traveling, singing, dancing, and serving in her local church in the music and the outreach ministry.