Executive Assistant

Vesta White serves as the Executive Assistant to the CEO at Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy. Vesta works directly with the CEO to ensure organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Vesta serves as an intermediary, liaison, and primary point of contact to the Board of Directors, Stakeholders, Administrative Team, and Community Partners.

Prior to joining the Advocacy Center in March 2023, Vesta began her career in higher education at Johnson C. Smith University in 2005. She spent 10 years supporting University Deans and Directors and 4 years orienting and advising first through senior year student success programs in a coordinator and strategic planning support role within the University College. She played an essential role in several of the University’s presidential community development and strategic partnership initiatives, grant-sponsored events, and programs, such as the Indaba and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program. Vesta also spent the past 4 years providing support to students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and most recently at Year Up Charlotte, where she used her skillset to close the opportunity divide by helping job seekers ages 18-29 get placed in careers making livable wages.

Vesta earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina. Prior to that, she earned her associate in arts & Sciences degree in Information Technology from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. In her free time, Vesta enjoys fun activities with her family and friends, listening to live music, spoken word, traveling, participating in community outreach/engagement opportunities, and attending cultural enrichment events. Fun fact,  Vesta’s “gift to gab” and fun personality earned her a spot on a local Charlotte radio talk show called “Between Girlfriends” with three of her amazing friends.

Vesta works for the Advocacy Center because she is fulfilled, playing an integral role as Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy continues to help move the needle on social justice, civic engagement, and community empowerment. “I do the work of socioeconomic empowerment, as well as social and civic justice, to give to individuals and families what I realized I needed in various stages of my life. As a first-generation college student, I realized I needed KNOWLEDGE ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’. I needed HOPE, a quote by Robert H Schuller states, ‘Let your hopes not your hurts shape your future.’. Finally, I needed HELP, if it were not for free or low-cost resources and programs, I can only imagine how different my family’s future would have been. We must all ‘Be the Change and the Light.’”