Aleyamma Mathew

“Addressing inequity is challenging because it’s a norm in our culture. Art has the ability to reshape convention and engage different emotions and visions that help shape innovation, culture and practice. Art is elegant while being powerful enough to create culture change.”

Aleyamma Mathew is a nationally known expert on the intersection of gender and economic justice. With over 20 years of experience in the philanthropic and advocacy sectors at the local, state, and national levels, she has never stopped in her fight for women’s justice. Aleyamma has dedicated her life to creating and defending economic policies to protect women’s rights, safety, and economic security, with a focus on women of color, immigrant and refugee women, and low-wage women workers. Currently, Aleyamma is the Executive Director of the Collective Future Fund bringing together social justice movements, survivors, and donors to heal, resource, and mobilize to shape a collective future free from sexual harassment and violence. With a priority on supporting efforts that are led by women of color, the Fund envisions a world in which all women and girls––cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming––can live, learn, and work in safety and dignity.

What does leadership mean to you?

“I believe that people are not born leaders, but instead are provided opportunities for their leadership to show. I want to create those opportunities for women of color so they can lead.”

Where do Art and your discipline meet?

“Addressing inequity is challenging because its a norm in our culture. Art has the ability to reshape convention and engage different emotions and visions that help shape innovation, culture and practice. Art is elegant while being powerful enough to create culture change.”

Who are your local heroes?

“My parents who protected me in a world that was not always safe.”

biography:

Aleyamma Mathew is a nationally known expert on the intersection of gender and economic justice. With over 20 years of experience in the philanthropic and advocacy sectors at the local, state, and national levels, she has led advocacy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and campaigns for economic policies to protect women’s rights, safety, and economic security, with a focus on women of color, immigrant and refugee women, and low-wage women workers.

Currently, Aleyamma is the Executive Director of the Collective Future Fund and serves on the Board of Directors for the Asian Arts Initiative. The Collective Future Fund brings together social justice movements, survivors, and donors to heal, resource, and mobilize to shape a collective future free from sexual harassment and violence. With a priority on supporting efforts that are led by women of color, the Fund envisions a world in which all women and girls––cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming––can live, learn, and work in safety and dignity.

Before joining the Collective Future Fund, Aleyamma served as the Director of the Women’s Economic Justice Program at the Ms. Foundation. There she led investment strategies for ensuring women’s economic security, including through advocacy and organizing for improved wages, workplace policies, and childcare access for women, focusing on low-wage workers of color and immigrant workers.

Prior to joining the Ms. Foundation, Aleyamma was the Policy Director at the Partnership for Working Families, where she led multi-city campaigns focused on job quality, environmental protections, and equal access to public resources for low-income communities. Aleyamma also worked as the Program Director for the Women’s Institute for Leadership and Development for Human Rights where she trained grassroots organizations on assessing local policies using a human rights framework, and participated in the U.N. CERD Review Process in Geneva to highlight human rights violations against women of color in the United States. Aleyamma was part of the Founding Steering Committee and served as the Program Director for the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, where she developed research and policy initiatives and a technical assistance program for community based agencies serving low-income Asian, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, refugee, and immigrant communities.

Aleyamma was born in India and from Kerala, South India. Her mother immigrated to Philadelphia in the late 1970s. She was part of a large migration of nurses from Kerala who moved to the US to fill the huge labor gap of nurses that were needed after the Vietnam War in US hospitals. Aleyamma later moved to the US with her father and two brothers and lived in Fern Rock, Logan and finally Oleny. She attended Central High School and Temple University. After leaving Philadelphia, she moved to New York and lived there for 20 years. Aleyamma was the recipient of the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, which brought together leaders from the US and Asia Pacific region. She also received a Fulbright and studied in India. Although, she has been able to travel and accomplished many things, she has always felt that Philadelphia helped shape her in influential and lasting ways.