The Power of Her Voice: How DC SCORES Inspired Natasha Dupee’s Public Service Career

When Natasha Dupee reflects on her childhood, one particular experience stands out. 

“DC SCORES was the highlight,” she says. “I knew every day there was something exciting for me. Either going outside or, if we stayed indoors, I could also be my true self, which was a learner of reading and writing.”

Dupee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian who currently serves as the Director of the DC Mayor’s Office of Women’s Policy and Initiatives (MOWPI). She has spent almost her entire career in public service, taking on various roles in education, women’s policy, and healthcare. 

Dupee traces much of her passion for civic community work to her formative years in DC SCORES. She was one of the earliest poet-athletes to participate in the non-profit’s award-winning program, joining Anne Beers Elementary team in 1998, just four years after DC SCORES was founded. 

It was in the program that Dupee first discovered the power of words, the strength of community, and how individual acts of service could have a far-reaching social impact. 

Put simply, “being a poet-athlete was a hallmark of my identity,” she says. 

A Close-Knit Community

Dupee grew up in Ward 7 in Southeast DC. She remembers a childhood spent exploring the “majestic” environment of the Anacostia River and playing in its namesake Anacostia Park. 

Her neighborhood was defined by community. “Everyone that I knew, we would see each other on the streets of Southeast,” she says. “You didn’t have to leave your community to experience love.”

“But,” she adds, “when I think about my community, I also think about there being gaps.”

Underfunding in the area meant that some basic resources, such as grocery stores and doctors’ clinics, were not readily available. Often, local community organizations stepped in to meet the needs of families. 

“There was a commitment that folks can bloom where they’re planted,” she says of these local organizations, which included DC SCORES. 

DC SCORES launched at Anne Beers in 1997, just three years after the nonprofit’s after-school soccer, poetry, and service-learning program was founded by a DC public school teacher. From its inception, DC SCORES has offered its programming to schools and families at no cost, an aspect of the program that Dupee says was profoundly empowering for its young participants.

“One of my favorite things about DC SCORES was that we all got to wear a uniform. I get emotional thinking about it,” she says. “At my elementary school, everyone was expected to wear a uniform; however, sometimes people fell short. With DC SCORES, everyone got to be the same.”

Discovering Her Voice

DC SCORES was a place where Anne Beers students could gather together on equal terms to build community, socialize with peers, and develop new skills. 

“There was an emphasis on having fun. There was an emphasis on collaboration,” says Dupee. “And, yes, we wanted to win, but I think the self-esteem that students had, both boys and girls, was paramount.”

Dupee loved soccer, but it was within DC SCORES’ poetry and service-learning curricula that she discovered her true passions. 

“Being a poet-athlete, you realize that you have strength in taking a stance. You can take a stance depending on your field position. You can also take a stance with your words,” she says.

She recalls the first time she participated in a DC SCORES poetry slam and the idea it sparked in her head. “I have those skill sets of learning which words would be most decisive in a slam poetry competition. But what words could move hearts and minds outside of a slam poetry experience as well?”

And so, Dupee began to use her voice. 

At 14, she began working in the office of DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton through a relationship built in a youth mentorship program. “[Norton’s Chief of Staff] saw me in middle school and said, ‘This girl knows how to use her words!’” Dupee explains.

After her first stint on Capitol Hill, Dupee enrolled at George Washington University, where she gained her bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies. She went on to attain a Master’s in Public Health from the university, as well as a Master’s in Education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  

Upon graduation from her education program, Dupee became a Teach for America Corps Member. Once again, the lessons she learned at DC SCORES proved invaluable. “I knew that being a teacher was going to be more than the content or curriculum. I knew that you could do the academics and have fun,” she shares. “I think that came from DC SCORES.”

Inspiring Public Service

Even as she worked in education, Dupee remained active in political advocacy work. After working and volunteering on numerous statewide and local political campaigns, Dupee decided to run for office herself.

First elected in 2020, Dupee has served three consecutive terms as the DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) for Single-Member District 7E04, where she focuses on improving the quality of life for residents. In 2022, she was appointed to serve as the Associate Director at MOWPI before assuming the agency’s leadership in 2023. 

“I truly believe that when you inform girls, or inform women, you change their lives and you change the lives of their families,” she says. “Being able to focus on strengthening girls gives us the opportunity to make sure that households and generations have a new trajectory.”

Today, Dupee is a regular at DC SCORES events, and her agency has hosted numerous girls in the DC SCORES program to share their poetry at MOWPI events. 

Seeing these young girls step into the power of their voices at DC SCORES, just as she did, fills Dupee with hope for the future. She knows firsthand that these experiences have the potential to transform an entire city. 

When asked to share her advice for aspiring public servants, Dupee focuses on the impact of words: “Be a great listener and a great writer so you can see what words resonate with others. See how you can shift hearts and minds to a better outcome for yourself, for your community.”