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.

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.

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.

Alex Arso is the Government Affairs Manager at Long Island Cares, Inc. – The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank. She received a B.A. in International Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.) from Touro University. She has been an employee of Long Island Cares since 2020 when she joined the emergency response team as a result of the pandemic. Soon after she converted to a full-time position and since has established a reputation as a skilled and dynamic Government Affairs Manager, fostering program success and advancing objectives of anti-hunger advocacy campaigns to secure policy wins.

Other non-profit organizations to which she has made a positive contribution include the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Manhattan Youth. In addition, Alex completed a research project for the US Department of State as part of a Diplomacy Lab on “Youth and Security,” and presented her findings on a panel at the Academy of Criminal Justice Conference in 2019.

She enjoys connecting with others who challenge the status quo with a commitment to positively impact future generations.

Alexander B. Harris, MPH, CPH is the Clinical Research Manager at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center where he conducts research within TGNB communities. Prior to joining Callen-Lorde, he managed health promotion campaigns geared towards NYC’s LGBTQ communities at the New York City Health Department and lead an insurance advocacy coalitions to ensure coverage for gender-affirming care for Health Care for All New York. Harris currently manages the implementation of three federally funded observational studies focused on HIV prevention and health outcomes for transgender communities. He received his Masters of Public Health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and his Bachelors of Arts in History and Russian Civilization from Smith College.

Alexandra Krueger is the Manager of Museum Affairs at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library. She has been working at the New-York Historical Society for over six years. During this time, she has worked in the Visitor Services, Group Sales, Legal/Administration, and Curatorial departments. In her current role, she handles the finances and administration for the museum division which includes the curatorial, collections, exhibitions, graphics, and conservation departments. She works closely with the Museum Director and key executive museum staff to manage all administration matters supporting the museum collections and on-site and traveling programs for both art and history. Most notably in this past year, she had been the project manager for the Messages for the President-Elect initiative, the Tattooed New York exhibition, and a small Historical Society publication Treasures of the New-York Historical Society, an Abbeville Press Tiny Folio. Alexandra graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with honors in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and a minor in Business Management. After Marymount, she began pursuing a career in museums. She has had roles within the museum field in the areas of curatorial, collections, and digital media at prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. She is also an active member of the American Alliance of Museums and other arts and museum professional networks.