Aalap Shah is a mission-driven product innovator, who is passionate about human centered design and has successfully led strategy, product, growth, and M&A for startups and Fortune 500 companies. Before his current role leading product for Customer Hardship at Capital One, Aalap was Head of Product for Paribus, launched fintech mobile apps, and had a previous life working in social innovation and international development. He went to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and got his MBA at the University of Texas. He also is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors at OutRight Action International, an LGBTIQ human rights organization. Aalap lives in New York City with his partner Gregg.

Aaron Covarrubias is an adult education and management professional with experience in program management, immigrant integration, training and development, e-learning, teaching, advising, curriculum & instructional design, workforce development, and leading operations for non-profit and higher education institutions. He joined the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York in May 2018 as Education and Training Manager bringing a wealth of experience in adult education and nonprofit management to this position. Before joining NPCC, Aaron worked at Upwardly Global, a nonprofit organization that helps skilled immigrants and refugees secure professional employment. He served in different positions while spearheading educational initiatives, such as revamping their client’s training experience and implementing a national ESL program. Prior to that, Aaron worked in a top private university in Mexico leading faculty and all student affairs. He holds a B.S. in Administration, an M.S. in Education, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in Education. He plays guitar in an underrated, independent, reggae-rock band and lives in Brooklyn.

Abby Verbosky, Program Director for Reel Works, leads and organizes programs that inspire and empower students to share their stories through filmmaking, as well as gain workforce readiness workshops and trainings. Abby currently leads the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance Youth and Family Programs Roundtable and is a contributing member of the Steering Committee for the NYC DOE’s Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Moving Image and the Summerfield Foundation Peer Learning Cohort. Abby Verbosky maintains her professional practice in portrait, event, and real estate photo/video. Based in Brooklyn, New York, since 2011, her roots are in photojournalism, street photography, experimental video, and art exhibition management.

Ms. Abeer Alharazi has been the Deputy Director at the Yemeni American Merchants Association (YAMA) since 2019. She was the first employee to be hired at YAMA when it was established in 2017, as it was born through the Yemeni Bodega Strike in New York in response to the Executive Order Travel Ban on February 2, 2017, at Brooklyn Borough Hall. She formerly served as a (DOJ) at The Arab American Association of New York (AAANY). For almost four years, she served immigrant communities from across New York City by providing various immigration legal services to over hundreds of clients. She received her Paralegal Certification from York College and received a legal studies award for outstanding scholastic achievement in 2015. Abeer holds a degree in Business Administration from BMCC College, where she was on its Dean’s list and received the Phi Theta Kappa award in 2011. Prior to her arrival to the United States, Abeer worked at the American Embassy in the capital of Yemen, Sana’a for five years. She mostly served in the procurement department where she experienced working with local and overseas Merchants. She was recognized for her exemplary service, and extraordinary efforts for sustaining a high level of performance, where she received multiple awards.

Ada Lin is currently a Senior Program Coordinator at the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF). In her work, she coordinates a youth leadership program called the Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP). Ada educates and trains AAPI youth across the city to develop their policy advocacy understanding and build their leadership, community, and teamwork skills through the development of school-based campaigns. In addition, Ada also work with AAPI identifying parents to foster their sense of identity and belonging in their communities. In her role, Ada has expanded the programs using different recruitment methods and diversifying ways community members can participate in the program. In her work, Ada strives to create an environment where everyone can feel seen, heard and valued.

Prior to CACF, Ada worked as a counselor advocate at the Chinese-American Planning Council where she would provide counseling and SEL workshops to high school students. During her time in graduate school, Ada also interned at an elementary school in the Lower East Side as a school social work intern, and at a local City Council member’s office as a policy and communication intern. As a social work student, Ada focused her coursework on social work policy advocacy. Ada received a B.A. in psychology from CUNY Brooklyn College in 2018 and a Master of Social Work from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service in 2022.

Adam Liebowitz joined North Star Fund in 2013. Adam directs Community Food Funders (CFF), a philanthropic organizing project for funders in the tri-state area to invest in the transition to an equitable, ecologically sound, and sustainable regional food system that emphasizes local growing, processing, and distribution. Adam administered and coordinated North Star Fund’s Greening Western Queens Fund and Community Fund for Sandy Recovery. In 2019, Adam led the process of the creation, design, and implementation of the Seeding Power Fellowship for food justice leaders, CFF’s newest initiative.

Adam has a rich history in the nonprofit sector and extensive experience in community outreach and development, urban farming, program design and management, youth development, and environmental justice. “My time as Education Director at a Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx provided a foundation to understand the strengths and struggles of underserved populations in New York City,” Adam says. “At The Point CDC, I worked with amazing people dedicated to undoing some of the systemic injustices in our city and culture, and learned the importance of community-based planning and grassroots activism to realize social change.”

Focusing on environmental justice and food access, Adam trained Hunts Point youth through The Point’s ACTION program as community organizers able to establish their own projects and campaigns. He created an urban agriculture and food justice program that included cooking and nutrition classes, public health outreach, the establishment of a local CSA, and vegetable gardens across multiple sites. Adam designed and organized the 2009 South Bronx Food & Film Expo, and served on the steering committee in 2011 for the first Bronx Food Summit.

Prior to joining North Star Fund, Adam worked as an independent consultant to nonprofit organizations and private firms specializing in food systems planning and food access projects in New York. He received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002 and an M.S. in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from The New School in 2011.

Aiden K. Feltkamp (they/he) began their artistic life at the age of 5 playing a quarter-size cello and now they wrangle arts administrators and composers as the first-ever Director of Emerging Composers and Diversity with the American Composers Orchestra. In their artistic practice, they write in varying genre and they perform as an opera singer.

As an equity and inclusion specialist for the past 8 years, they have consulted for performing arts organizations, funders, universities, and businesses. They have worked with Johnson & Johnson, Yelp, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, OPERA America, the League of American Orchestras, and the LA Phil. In their time with the American Composers Orchestra, they have sustained and created programs that provide orchestral opportunities to composers from diverse backgrounds. Utilizing data analysis and innovative recruitment, they have increased diverse candidates by 9% each year for the past 3 years, and they have increased the diversity of early career composers granted opportunities through ACO’s flagship program, EarShot, by 37% across the board.

Mx Feltkamp’s written work spans the serious and the ridiculous, the real and the surreal. Some of their favorite projects include: an opera about Emily Dickinson’s queerness (The Homestead with Dana Kaufman), an interactive fiction experience about alien communication coded in Javascript (“Hello, Aria”), new English translations of Jewish lesbian erotic poet Marie-Madeleine’s work (The Priestess of Morphine with Rosśa Crean), and a four-part series decoupling gender and voice types. Most recently, their work has been commissioned by Cantus, Amherst College, and the International Museum of Surgical Sciences, and has been published in Crêpe & Penn, Bait/Switch, and NewMusicBox.

Before pursuing their medical transition, Mx Feltkamp performed opera professionally, specializing in Baroque opera and new music. Their most fulfilling roles include Hansel, Prince Orlofsky, Cherubino, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea (especially in a Baroque gesture production with director Drew Minter), and Elizabeth in the World and NY premieres of Griffin Candey’s Sweets by Kate. They continue to train their new voice and have recently performed as Figaro in ChamberQUEER’s abridged Le Nozze di Figaro.

Mx Feltkamp is a Turn the Spotlight fellow (20/21 cohort) and a New York Community Trust Leadership Fellow (Fall 21 cohort). In 2019, they received the “Top 30 Professionals of the Year” award from Musical America. They graduated from Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program (under the direction of Dawn Upshaw) with a Masters of Music, and received their B.S. in Vocal Performance from Hofstra University. They hold certifications in DEI and Data Science. They currently live in Jersey City with their partner, cat, parrots, and robot dog.

AjiFanta Marenah was born in The Gambia and migrated to the U.S as a political asylee when she was twelve years old. She completed her Bachelor’s in Government and Politics and Master’s in International Relations at St. John’s University. As a Black, Muslim, immigrant woman, AjiFanta is determined to use her platform to dismantle oppressive systems and contribute towards building just, inclusive and peaceful societies that respect human rights and dignity. In the name of that cause, she is currently working as the Civic Education & Advocacy Program Manager at Muslim Community Network (MCN) where her role includes organizing the Muslim community around policy issues that impact them and leading MCN’s efforts fighting against islamophobia, racism, and hate crimes.

On the local level, AjiFanta serves on the board of The Gambian Youth Organization (GYO), a community-based nonprofit organization with a mission to advocate for and educate the community about their rights against marginalization and connect them to useful city resources. She was there with the GYO when the tragic fire struck at the Twin Park Towers helping to raise funds, advocate for victim rights and create a post fire community advocacy plan and most recently working with the team to address the current migrant crisis in NYC by providing needed assistance to asylum seekers as they arrive and working with City Hall to amplify those needs.

AjiFanta is also active on a more global scale serving on the board of Movendi International’s New York Chapter, as well as recently graduating from The Emerging Peacemakers Program as one of 50 fellows working to advance world peace through an interfaith framework. She has also worked as a research assistant with Human Rights Watch and The Rose Lokissim Foundation under the supervision of international Human Rights Attorney,Reed Brody, where she assisted a coalition of organizations with designing a mechanism to bring justice for victims of enforced disappearances, torture and other forms of mass atrocities that happened under the rule of the former Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh.

AjiFanta has been recognized locally and nationally for her work. She is a recipient of the Council on American Islamic Relation (CAIR-NY)’s Faith In Action Social Justice Award and has been awarded by Bronx Borough President, Vanessa Gibson, Congressman, Ritchie Torres, and New York State Assembly Woman, Chantel Jackson, for her advocacy throughout New York.

Being born and having lived through the consequences of a government that violated its own constitution, international human rights laws and the basic tenets of morality, shaped her determination to contribute in creating just and inclusive societies that respect human rights and dignity.