Mishi (she/her) is the Director of AFF. She oversees a $4 million grantmaking portfolio advancing AFF’s mission to support the self-determination, power, and liberation of Black, Brown, AAPI, and Indigenous youth impacted by youth incarceration, child welfare and other disruptive systems.

Most recently, Mishi 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. Previously, Mishi worked as the juvenile justice policy strategist with the ACLU, the director of the Women in Prison Project and the Juvenile Justice Project with the Correctional Association of New York, the director of youth justice programs at the Children’s Defense Fund-NY, and as a senior advisor to the Commissioner at the New York City Department of Probation. She currently serves on the board of Community Connections for Youth, a nonprofit organization in the South Bronx.

Mishi received her bachelor’s from Swarthmore College and holds graduate degrees from Oxford University and the New School for Social Research.

Zaira (she/her) serves as the Senior Program Associate at the Andrus Family Fund. She provides programmatic and administrative assistance to further AFF’s strategy, 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. In coordination with the AFF team and grantee partners, Zaira helps to arrange convenings and webinars, organizes collaborative meetings and serves as a liaison to the AFF Board of Directors. Zaira joined AFF as Administrative Assistant in April 2019 before moving into her current role. 

Prior to the Andrus Family Fund, Zaira worked for Technical Traffic Consultants, where she managed auditing, generated reports and coordinated new client account setups. Though she satisfied her analytical side while working in accounting, Zaira always longed for a career that felt rewarding and fulfilling. The shift to philanthropy was a welcomed change. Through philanthropy and in connection with AFF’s grantees, Zaira continues to learn how to best support movements toward racial and social justice and liberation. 

Outside of work, Zaira is an avid crocheter and, as she likes to put it, “an artist with a small a.” She enjoys traveling, cooking meals, exploring new cuisines, hiking and absorbing nature. She lives in Rockland County, NY with her three wonderful children and two cats.

Lincoln (he/him) is the Program Officer of the Andrus Family Fund. Lincoln helps guide a $4 million grantmaking portfolio supporting the self-determination, power, and liberation of Black, Brown, AAPI, and Indigenous youth impacted by youth incarceration, child welfare and other disruptive systems. He joined AFF in August 2023.

In this role, Lincoln manages field leadership and learning agendas alongside the AFF team, board and Movement Partner Advisory Council to implement AFF’s strategy to advance the abolition of disruptive juvenile systems. Instead, AFF focuses on community-driven alternatives for youth well-being, safety, and justice.

With deep and interdisciplinary expertise in youth activism, LGBTQ+ health and rights, reproductive justice, and narratives, Lincoln leverages his creativity to connect movements, inspire participation, and, ultimately, seed new worlds.

He began his career supporting a range of justice-focused clients across external affairs, strategy, and design at the political affairs firm BerlinRosen—including the 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.

Lincoln went on to lead strategy for Advocates for Youth, a reproductive health organization anchored by a cohort of 150+ youth activists. At Advocates for Youth, Lincoln directed a YouTube series for LGBTQ+ youth of color, trained youth activists as storytellers, and managed the organization’s external brand and relationships.

Outside of these positions, Lincoln created two short films with the national public health organization Truth Initiative, exploring the origins and impact of the tobacco industry and how it shaped the Black experience in America. He is a recognized expert in messaging and programs tailored to younger audiences, with his work and commentary appearing in CBS News, The Daily Show, Teen Vogue, PAPER, NowThis, Healthline, and more.

As a self-proclaimed lover of “pretty things,” Lincoln is design-obsessed, and Apartment Therapy and Dwell Magazine have featured his curation. A native Texan, Lincoln graduated from The George Washington University and proudly serves on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.