Jodi Mailander Farrell is a former journalist who has worked in nonprofit fundraising for the past 10 years, most recently as Assistant Vice President of Advancement at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, one of the largest performing arts centers in the country.

At the Arsht Center, she closed six- and seven-figure major gifts, forged new relationships with national foundations, reactivated endowment giving, and championed philanthropic support for arts education programs for children with little or no access to the arts. In her last year at the Arsht Center, Jodi’s portfolio brought in more than $6 million in pledges and gifts and secured national financial support for the Arsht Center’s downtown Miami neighborhood development efforts.

Jodi has been a reporter for The Palm Beach Post and Miami Herald, where she also worked as a features editor and dining critic. Her writing has appeared in state and national publications, including National Geographic Traveler, Visit Florida, People, and Latina magazine. She teaches writing as an adjunct instructor in the University of Miami’s School of Communication and is a contributing editor for The Sunday Long Read, a weekly newsletter that showcases longform journalism. Jodi has been a volunteer youth soccer and softball coach with the YMCA of Greater Miami and the Coral Gables Youth Center, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center.

Jodi graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where she was a first-generation college student and cross-country runner. She lives in Coconut Grove with her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Patrick Farrell. They have two grown daughters, Annie and Lucy.