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.

Most recently, Aisha served as Chief Executive Officer of Giving Gap, formerly known as Give Blck, an organization dedicated to building the movement for the equitable funding of Black nonprofits.Prior to joining Giving Gap, Aisha was Vice President for Strategy & Equity at the Meyer Foundation, where she led efforts to integrate racial equity and justice into all areas of the Foundation’s work. In her tenure at Meyer, Aisha 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.Aisha joined the philanthropic sector after 5 years as Director of Thought Leadership at KABOOM,  where she shaped and led 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, her political home and 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.

Aisha founded the Black Mamas March to organize mothers and caregivers of Black children to advocate for their well-being in public systems; is co-founder of Resourcing Radical Justice, a member of District Motherhood Society, serves as a board member for the Association of Black Foundation Executives, and volunteers as the president of the PTA 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. She lives in DC with her partner Jeffrey, and two adorable babes, Hailey (6) and Mercy (8 months)- last in this bio, but first in her life.