We partnered with the Surdna Foundation on the search for a Director of the Andrus Family Fund, resulting in the recruitment of Mishi Faruqee to the role. The Andrus Family Fund supports the self-determination, power and liberation of Black, Brown and Indigenous youth impacted by youth justice, child welfare and other disruptive systems.

In this role, Faruqee will oversee an over $4 million grantmaking portfolio supporting the self-determination, power, and liberation of Black, Brown, AAPI, and Indigenous youth impacted by the youth justice, child welfare, and other disruptive systems.

She will collaborate with AFF’s staff, board, Movement Partner Advisory Council, and grantees to implement AFF’s recently refreshed strategy, prioritizing youth-led organizing, advocacy, and power-building. AFF’s goal is to abolish the juvenile justice and child welfare systems that reinforce structural racism and diminish the well-being of the young people in them. Instead, AFF seeds and supports community-driven approaches that help youth flourish at home with their families, in school, in their communities, and in life.

Faruqee will also spearhead shared learning for AFF’s board, composed of eight Andrus family members and six non-family community members. As an anchor partner of the Visionary Freedom Fund, she will work hand-in-hand with a collective of youth and other movement leaders and funders to promote learning about and catalyze long-term investment in BIPOC youth-led organizing in the youth justice field.

Most recently, Faruqee served as President of Youth First Initiative, an AFF grantee partner and national campaign to end youth incarceration and invest in community-based supports, services, and opportunities for youth. In this role, she supported state-based juvenile justice campaigns and secured widespread policy changes.

Prior to Youth First, Mishi worked with the ACLU, the Correctional Association of New York, the Children’s Defense Fund-NY, and as a special assistant to the Commissioner at the New York City Department of Probation.

Faruqee holds a BA in History from Swarthmore College. She earned a Master’s degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and an MS in Urban Policy from The New School.

Read the press release here: https://surdna.org/news-insights/mishi-faruqee-appointed-director-of-the-andrus-family-fund/