Wendy Osefo, New Real Housewives of Potomac Star: Five Fast Facts You Need To Know

On Season 5 of The Real Housewives of Potomac, the ladies are joined by a new castmember, Dr. Wendy Osefo. Osefo is introduced on our screens right away and viewers will get to know her over the course of the season. Osefo joins current castmembers Gizelle Bryant, Robyn Dixon, Ashley Darby, Candiace Dillard, Karen Huger, and Monique Samuels.

Osefo is a Maryland native, and is a mother and a wife. According to the bio on her website,  Osefo is “an award-winning researcher” as well as a “Nigerian-American television personality and a highly sought-after progressive political commentator and strategist.”

So, who exactly is Wendy Osefo? Here’s what you need to know:

1. Wendy Osefo Is A Professor At The Johns Hopkins University

According to the bio on her website, Osefo is a professor at The Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches in the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) program at their School of Education. At Johns Hopkins, Osefo teaches many different courses. According to Johns Hopkins’ website, “her research examines how race and class influence the learning, achievement, and educational trajectories of non-dominant students in schools and community settings, and explores the intersections between race, equity, and underserved student groups in K-12 and postsecondary learning communities.”

In addition to being a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Osefo is also an alumna of the school. According to Bravo, Osefo received a Master of Arts from The Johns Hopkins University. Osefo also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University, a Master of Science from Rutgers University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Rutgers University.

2. Wendy Osefo Was The First Black Woman To Earn A PhD in Public Affairs/Community Development

According to Bravo, Osefo was the first black woman to earn a PhD in Public Affairs/Community Development in 2016. In 2018, Osefo spoke about the experience with the She Wins Society.

“My program started at Rutgers Camden and I wanted to take a deeper dive,” Osefo told She Wins Society, “I wanted to do a program that had meaning and substance and allowed me to be a practitioner. A lot of times when people have Ph.D.’s they end up being in the ivy towers of some institution just writing and publishing. While there is nothing wrong with that, I feel like there is so much to do with this knowledge base on the ground. So, it is great to have a Ph.D. or doctorate, but how do you apply that? The program at Rutgers Camden gave me the opportunity to do that. Camden is like any urban epicenter, whether it is Baltimore or Detroit, it is just rooted in all of the things that you think of when you think of a community that has been dilapidated.”

Osefo continued, “I have to give a shout out to Dr. Santiago, a woman of color. She told me that as me being a black woman, they are not going to be receptive of me in academia and I have to go twice as hard. I could still be in that program today honestly. I could still be trying to figure out my dissertation, but she pushed me and said that she sees something special in me. I was able to graduate because of her help. I literally got married the first year of my program and had both children in my program, which could have easily caused me to stop or take longer to finish, but they pushed me so hard. With their support and love, I became the first black woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in Public Affairs-Community Development from Rutgers University. I am glad there have been others after me, but I am also happy to have achieved that milestone because those women have allowed me to stand on their shoulders.”

3. You May Have Seen Wendy Osefo On Your TV Screens Before Real Housewives of Potomac

When you first see Osefo on The Real Housewives of Potomac, you may think that she looks familiar. That’s because she probably does, as you might have seen her before on your TV screen. Osefo is also a political commentator and has been featured on shows like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and The Steve Harvey Show, just to name a few.

According to her website, Dr. Osefo has a daily political segment on syndicated radio entitled, ”Things to Know, With Dr. Wendy O“. Osefo can be seen on Fox News as “the other side of the coin,” according to Refinery29. In a recent interview, Osefo told Refinery29, “I know that my political ideologies are different than a typical Fox News viewer, but I think it’s really important for the ways in which I think and people who look like me to have a representation on all platforms,” Osefo continued, “Their network has one of the highest viewerships for a cable news network, if not the highest. So, if no one goes on the shows to challenge some of the thinking on that network, then viewers will just hear one side of the story.

4. Wendy Osefo Is Married To Edward Osefo

Osefo is married to attorney Edward Osefo, according to Bravo. The two have an adorable love story, as they met when they were teenagers, and were friends for a long time until they officially sealed the deal after graduating college. According to his LinkedIn profile, Edward Osefo currently works as an attorney at RSM US LLP. Before that, he previously worked at companies like PwC and Deloitte.

Together, the couple has three children together, according to Bravo. There’s seven-year-old son Karter, five-year-old son Kruz, and their newborn daughter, Kamrynn. In July 2020, Osefo and her family threw an adorable birthday party for Kamrynn. In an Instagram caption, Osefo wrote, “To the little girl who has stolen my heart, I loved you even before I saw your face. Now that I can hold you, everything about you makes my heart smile. The sweetest thing I’ve ever known and the perfect answer to my prayers. Thank you for making these past 365 days one of growth and one of unimaginable love. But more importantly, thank you for choosing me to be your mommy.”

5. Wendy Osefo Is The Founder Of The 1954 Equity Project

Osefo is also the founder and CEO of the 1954 Equity Project, which “provides students with navigational capital to not just survive academia, but to thrive in academia as their authentic selves,” according to her website.

The project provides mentorship for young people, as well as other workshops and support. “It is a lot to juggle all of that stuff,” Osefo told MadameNoire in July 2020, “I did not jump at it at all. I prayed about it. I asked all of my loved ones. The truth of the matter is I have so much going on. I work in what is considered a relatively serious field.”

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