In this time of new opportunities for systemic change, Partners for Dignity & Rights is thrilled to announce that Kesi Foster will be joining our team as our new Co-Executive Director in mid-January! Kesi will lead our organization together with Co-Executive Director Liz Sullivan-Yuknis and our entire staff and board team as we continue to advance human rights and economic and racial justice.

Kesi is joining us from his position as the Co-Director of the Youth Power Project at Make the Road New York, where he advances campaigns for educational justice, immigration justice, and community safety. Previously, Kesi coordinated the Urban Youth Collaborative, the largest youth-led educational justice coalition in New York City, and worked at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Before joining the movements for educational justice, he held positions at the Right to Vote Campaign, and worked with formerly incarcerated individuals and public housing residents in New York City.

As we welcome Kesi, we want to thank our founding Executive Director, Cathy Albisa, for her many years of dedication and inspiration, and our most recent Co-Executive Director, Kenyon Farrow, for his leadership during this past year of transition. We are so grateful to have their ongoing support, with Kenyon joining our Board of Directors in April and Cathy continuing to collaborate on our New Social Contract project and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility Network.

In Kesi’s words, “I’m honored to build on the work of Cathy and Kenyon and to join Liz as Co-Executive Director at Partners for Dignity & Rights. I’ve seen first hand how Partners for Dignity & Rights supports the work of frontline organizations in the struggle for equity and justice. We are at a critical moment in our history and I’m looking forward to supporting the work of our dynamic team as we continue the fight for transformative change.”

“We welcome Kesi to Partners for Dignity & Rights. He has shown great leadership in his prior roles, and we look forward to what he will do as we embark on the next exciting chapter in our growth as an organization,” says Patrick L. Mason, Board Chair.

“I am so honored to have Kesi join as our Co-Executive Director. He has been an amazing partner in the Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York coalition for many years and brings deep passion and commitment to this work supporting students, families, workers and community-based organizations in the struggle for human rights,” says Liz Sullivan-Yuknis, Co-Executive Director.

As the end of 2021 approaches, please consider donating to Partners for Dignity & Rights as we prepare for this exciting transition! We continue working with our partners to advance comprehensive, transformative, community and worker-led solutions that offer an alternative to our current system and a possible future for our country grounded in democracy, equity and rights. Kesi’s skills and experience make him the perfect leader to help move our collective work forward!