VanNessa Duckett · 2026 Honoree

VanNessa Duckett has deep roots in Washington, DC, and a throng of supporters on Capitol Hill, where she created the “Polite Piggy’s” model, first as a summer camp and then as an after-school program. She chose the name after noticing that when she spoke to the children through a puppet they were especially attentive. Now each Polite Piggy’s center—in five public schools—has a fuzzy pink pig puppet to help connect with children.

Growing up, VanNessa was surrounded by a loving family. As a small child, she lived in Fort Washington, Maryland, in a house that her parents and paternal grandparents had purchased together. Her maternal grandfather lived down the street and took her to school most days. Each summer, she flew to Augusta, Georgia, to spend time with her maternal grandparents there. When she was in 4th grade, her family moved into DC so that she could attend first St. Ann’s Academy in Tenleytown and then Archbishop Carroll High School in Brookland.

VanNessa’s father was a DC police officer, and her mother was an executive secretary at the prestigious Akin Gump law firm. After school and on holidays, VanNessa would spend time at her mother’s office, sometimes interacting with one of the firm’s partners, civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. When the time came for her to apply to college, Jordan urged VanNessa to apply to his alma mater, DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She visited and was so impressed with the friendliness of the people there and the small town feel that she enrolled, graduating 4 years later with a degree in elementary education.

In August 1999, VanNessa started teaching 4th grade at Maury Elementary School. Nine years later, after earning a master’s degree in education from Trinity College here, she responded to a need and started Polite Piggy’s summer camp. It was so successful that it quickly spun off an after-school and holiday program that is now in five local elementary schools: Maury, School Within a School, J.O. Wilson, Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan, and Amidon-Bowen (in Southwest). The programs all offer a sliding scale for fees so that all children can attend.

VanNessa is quick to credit the Polite Piggy’s team, especially COO Ebony Butler, Director of Programming Rolanda Johnson, and each site’s leadership. Without them, she says, the program could not have achieved what it has. She also credits her parents who, she says, “really showed up for me.” They modelled lives of commitment to education and to family. Her father, she says, is the “essence of a lifelong learner. He literally took courses my entire life.”

Asked what her favorite part of her work is, VanNessa says she loves reading to the children and “finding joy in small things.” It is an attitude that has greatly benefited generations of our neighborhood children.