Monique McDowell who was born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida is a May 2006 Howard University graduate with a B.B.A. in International Business. Monique’s love of poetry first developed while in high school classes analyzing the works of famous poets such as Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson.

While at Howard, Monique had the opportunity to study the works of famous poets such as Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, and Ntozake Shange. The 2004 Who’s Who Amongst American Students in Colleges and Universities award recipient, previously served as a Resident Assistant at Howard University, National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP), DC Vote intern and personal assistant to the Reality TV star, Omarosa Manigualt Stallworth.

Monique’s travels and international volunteerism in Manila, Philippines and Hong Kong and Zhangjiajie, China has forever enhanced her perspective of the human impact of compassion. Upon graduation, Monique worked as a Distribution Analyst for a year at Payless ShoeSource Inc. corporate headquarters located in Topeka, Kansas. During her brief tenure at Payless, Monique kept true to her passion in the community and served United Way of Topeka, March of Dimes and Brown vs. Board of Education. Also, Monique served as a mentor for a resident of the girl’s shelter, Florence Crittenton, for at-risk youth in Topeka.  

Monique previously resided in Aurora, Colorado and worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in downtown Denver. While in Colorado, Monique has participated in several community service activities such as United Way Bridging the Gap, Junior Achievement, Art from Ashes, Especially Me and serving as a Junior Achievement teacher for a day. Monique currently resides in Topeka, Kansas and eventually plans to return home to Florida to help at-risk youth in Palm Beach County.

Monique uses poetry as her venue to address issues such as love, poverty, spousal abuse, racial discrimination, homelessness and faith. Monique hopes her poems will evoke emotions in the reader to demand a resolution to societal ills and diminish mass complacency.