Lawson Wijesooriya
Lawson is responsible for all resource development, operations and capital fundraising, grant management, strategically building and growing Urban Hope’s scope and scale, and helping direct our community engagement.
She graduated from the University of Virginia as a Phi Beta Kappa Jefferson Scholar and studied Christian community development in the Political and Social Thought program. Following graduation, she moved to Richmond, VA with a dream of living intentionally towards Martin Luther King’s vision for Beloved Community. Lawson began her career as a teacher before leaving her post to help start Blue Sky Fund, an education non-profit in the community. Lawson served as its founding executive director for ten years. She was honored as Richmond Style Weekly’s Top 40 under 40 in 2010.
After her tenure at Blue Sky, Lawson opened an ice cream social enterprise with a mission of hiring young people and building community. The Neighborhood Scoop, a for-profit company, opened in late summer 2017, and she continues to manage the seasonal business.
She lives in Urban Hope’s focus area, the East End, with her husband, two sons, and often others in need of short-term housing. After many years of being an investor, donor, and board member, Lawson wanted to jump all the way in with Urban Hope’s mission and became a staff member in 2019.
She also continues to serve in other community development capacities and on boards alongside fellow members of East End Fellowship’s congregation, a church she helped plant in 2008 as a founding elder.
In her personal life, Lawson enjoys traveling, hanging out with friends, and learning to play soccer in an attempt to keep up with her growing soccer-playing boys.