Jessica Ingram-Bellamy has taken to heart the words of inventor and scientist George Washington Carver: “We must rid ourselves of the idea that there’s a short-cut to achievement.” Ingram-Bellamy hasn’t taken any short cuts. In 1996, she traveled to England as a United States-United Kingdom ex-change volunteer with the Globe Centre for HIV/AIDS services. The following year, she put her undergraduate degree in Africana Studies from Cornell University to use as a global development consultant to the Prime Minister’s Office in Mozambique. “It’s not where you’re from, but where you’re headed in life that matters most,” says Ingram-Bellamy.

After seeing an advertisement for New York State Department of Health’s “HIV Stops With Me” campaign. Ingram-Bellamy tracked down the advertising firm and asked for a job. The firm turned out to be Better World Advertising, a social-marketing and health-issues agency in San Francisco. In January 2007, Ingram-Bellamy resigned as a senior executive at New York City’s North General Hospital to open and head the city’s office of BWA. As co-director, she coordinates office operations, generates client sales and manages creative research and development of social marketing campaigns. Last year, she was appointed to the New York City Department of Health’s Syphilis Advisory Group, convened to devise strategies to decrease the incidence of infection among high-risk populations.

Ingram-Bellamy furthers her civic mission by sitting on the board of the Friends of Harlem Hospital Center and on the advisory board of the Harlem Commonwealth Council. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, The Cornell Black Alumni Association and The Women’s City Club of New York. She’s also a frequent speaker at various organizations, including her alma mater, Columbia University, where she received a master’s degree in social administration.