Manuela Arciniegas is the Director of the Andrus Family Fund. She manages AFF’s overall grantmaking portfolio of 65+ organizations addressing gun violence reduction, trauma-informed care, divesting from prisons, and the intersection between immigration and justice systems.

Prior to her role as Director, Manuela was a Program Officer at AFF. She designed and managed the S.O.A.R. capacity building initiative and launched the AFF Webinar Learning Sessions, which highlight our nation’s most innovative leaders promoting highly effective strategies that support youth impacted by the youth justice system — including African-American, Latinx, Native and LBGTQ youth.

Manuela serves as the co-chair of the Funders for Justice/Neighborhood Funders’ Group, the Fund for Women and Girls of Color, the Youth First State Advocacy Fund, the Youth Engagement Fund Advisory Board, the Funder’s Collaborative on Youth Organizing Advisory Board, the New York City Youth Funders, the New York City Capacity Building Funder’s Collaborative and the Steering Committee for Funders for Criminal Justice Reform at Philanthropy New York.

Nyoka Acevedo is a Program Officer for the Andrus Family Fund. She helps manage our $4 million national portfolio of more than 50 grantee partners.

Nyoka brings more than 15 years of experience in the field of program development, management, grant-making and education, all in service of creating social change and advancing outcomes for our nation’s most vulnerable youth and communities. She has trained hundreds of educators in New York and Los Angeles on restorative practices through a racial justice framework. Her leadership has helped advance safety and healing while moving communities away from punitive practices that drive mass incarceration.

She has worked with the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Red Hook Initiative, Urban Arts Partnership and The Future Project. Nyoka also served as the Grants Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, working alongside more than 30 grassroots organizations nationally to advance public policy that combats the war on drugs and ends the criminalization of Black and Latinx communities.

Nyoka holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the School of Professional Studies, City University of New York. A born-and-raised New Yorker, she likes to get away from the city sometimes to hike and explore nature with her son and extended family.

Zaira Cedano is a temporary Administrative Assistant for the Andrus Family Fund. She provides additional programmatic and administrative support to the team and our partners.

Prior to working at the Andrus Family Fund, Zaira worked for Technical Traffic Consultants on auditing, generating reports, data analysis and coordinating new client account set-ups. Though she satisfied her intellectual side while working there, she always longed to return to work that was more rewarding and fulfilling. The shift from accounting to philanthropy is a welcomed change.

Bari Katz is an educator, facilitator and curriculum designer who works with organizations and schools across the country to develop programs, trainings and custom curricula around equity, diversity and inclusion, and social justice. Bari has worked in leadership roles with local and national non-profit organizations and co-founded a charter high school in Brooklyn, NY.

Bari now serves as a consultant working with organizations like Andrus Family Fund, City Year, Let’s Get Ready, the American Conference on Diversity, iMentor, and City University of New York designing curricula and programs, facilitating professional development workshops, and coaching school and program staff to most effectively work with their students. Bari is committed to supporting and empowering youth and those working with young people to understand the dynamics of oppression and privilege and how to work toward social justice.