Aisha Alexander-Young
Meet Aisha
Aisha Alexander-Young is a context creator, systems disruptor, and community organizer whose career is focused on the intersection of race, place, and opportunity. She has held leadership positions in philanthropy, local government, grassroots organizations and small and large nonprofits. Aisha currently serves as Vice President for Strategy & Equity at the Meyer Foundation, where she leads efforts to integrate racial equity and justice into all areas of the Foundation’s work. In her tenure at Meyer, Aisha has built and led work to shift the philanthropic sector’s relationship and support of nonprofits and movements led by Black and other people of color. She is particularly noted for her development of the Fund for Black-Led Change, a $20 million commitment of core support to Black-led organizations that are building power, advancing organized communities, and transforming systems.
More About Aisha...
Prior to joining the Meyer Foundation, Aisha was the Director of Thought Leadership at KABOOM, shaping and leading trajectory-changing initiatives to create public space equity for kids and families in marginalized communities. She also spent seven years as the Advancement Director for Dream Defenders, a movement founded in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin, focused on building power and a new vision of freedom and safety in Black, Latinx, immigrant, and working-class communities.
The majority of Aisha’s local government leadership experience was for the City of Charlotte, where she was Operations Director for the Department of Neighborhood & Economic Development, responsible for the strategic vision and implementation plan for the city’s initiatives to advance equitable neighborhoods. Her leadership fundamentally transformed the way the City of Charlotte engages communities of color and designs programs, initiatives and funding streams that support neighborhood residents as the lead change agents in their communities.
Just as in her career, Aisha is committed to racial justice and equity in her personal life, living into this commitment through such activities as founding the Black Mamas March to organize mothers and caregivers of Black children to advocate for their well-being in public systems and serving as the president of the Parent, School, Community Organization in her neighborhood school. Aisha attended Hampton University, where she earned her BA in English and Early Childhood Education, studied social work at Temple University’s School of Public Health, concentrating in Community and Policy Practice, and is currently pursuing her Public Leadership Credential from Harvard Kennedy School. Aisha lives in Washington, D.C., with her partner Jeffrey and their young daughter Hailey.