Mishi Faruqee (she/her) is the Director of Andrus Family Fund (AFF), a fund of the Surdna Foundation. She oversees a $5 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, family policing, and other disruptive systems.    

In close collaboration with AFF’s board, staff, and Movement Partners Advisory Council, Mishi directs funding to organizations working to abolish juvenile justice and family policing systems, instead focusing on youth-led organizing, power-building, and community-driven approaches to help youth flourish at home with their families, in school, in their communities, and in life. She joined AFF in November 2022. 

As a recognized leader, advocate, and organizer in youth justice, Mishi has helped bring significant advances to youth justice and criminal justice policy throughout her career.   

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. 

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