Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC) recently announced Maheen Kaleem as its new deputy director.
Kaleem arrives at G4GC from the NoVo Foundation, where she worked as a program officer leading the foundation’s efforts to curb violence against girls and women. She managed a grantmaking portfolio focused on ending commercial sexual exploitation and spearheaded the development of the Life Story Grants, a three-year program supporting projects that close on-ramps into the sex trade while opening exit ramps for survivors.
Aonya McCruiston
Maheen Kaleem discusses “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline” report in front of the U.S. House of Representatives.
A Pakistani Muslim woman whose parents immigrated to the U.S. and a survivor of gender-based violence herself, Kaleem has dedicated her career to fighting for disadvantaged women and girls.
She worked for more than three years as a staff attorney at the human rights advocacy organization, Rights4Girls. Before that, she served as director of client services at Pennsylvania Lawyers for Youth, an organization she co-founded with the mission of effecting real, community-driven changes in the state’s juvenile justice system.
Kaleem holds a bachelor of science in international politics and human rights and a law degree, both from Georgetown University. Already dedicated to helping youth early on, she worked as a policy intern at Campaign for Youth Justice during her undergraduate years. After finishing her undergraduate work, Kaleem went straight into the youth services sector, working as an advocate for the Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited Youth/Safe Place Alternative in Oakland, California.
Kaleem returned to Georgetown after a little more than two years as an advocate to complete her graduate education. Then, in 2013, she was selected to be a Stoneleigh Foundation Emerging Leader Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania. It was after about a year with the ACLU that she moved on to co-found Pennsylvania Lawyers for Youth.
An alum of the Equal Justice Works Fellowship and the National Juvenile Justice Network Youth Justice Leadership Institute, Kaleem is also known for co-authoring the seminal and widely cited reports: The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: A Girls’ Story and Beyond the Walls: A Look at Girls in D.C.’s Juvenile Justice System.
“I know Maheen’s wealth of experience and commitment to our girls will be an enormous asset to the G4GC network, stated executive director Monique W. Morris in a news release about the appointment. “I can hardly wait for the G4GC we will build together.”
Maheen Kaleem begins work immediately in her new role as deputy director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, where she will lead development and management of its programs, grants and operations.
