Managing Director
Maggie Russell-Ciardi has over twenty years of experience in the non-profit sector, with both grassroots system change organizations and progressive cultural institutions. Her passions are community and coalition building, liberatory education, and grassroots organizing rooted in radical non-violence.
Maggie served for seven years as the Executive Director of Tenants & Neighbors, a grassroots organization working to defend tenants’ rights and preserve affordable housing. She also has worked as a fundraiser for the Rhiza Collective, Equality for Flatbush, and the Street Vendor Project. Prior to that, she worked at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where she developed and managed arts, education, and dialogue programs on issues related to economic justice and immigrant rights. She also has served as a program consultant for the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, helping historic sites foster dialogue about and civic engagement with contemporary human rights issues.
Maggie has a MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from NYU with a focus on human rights education and democracy building. She has translated the novel Como Si No Muriera Nadie (As If No One Had Died) by Chilean author Poli Delano. Her BA, from Oberlin College, was in Spanish and Labor Studies.
Maggie also practices and teaches ashtanga yoga, makes plant-based medicines, and practices peaceful, feminist parenting.