Deliberate & Steadfast: Building Community Power with Karina Jiménez Lewis

As part of our "Intersections of Resilience" series, we honor the transformative leadership within our comunidad. For Women's History Month, we’re highlighting stories that illuminate how their lived experiences, unwavering determination, and visionary work are actively reshaping philanthropy's future. Through their journeys, we witness the power of women's leadership to create more equitable, inclusive, and just communities.

To kick off the series, we invited HIP board member Jonathan Jayes-Green to share their platform and voice. 

2025 just started, and it has already been a rough year. Uncertainty, chaos, destruction, and pain surround us, and more is sure to come. As people who labor in the philanthropic sector, it is our job to be of the highest service to the people and communities we support. To do that well, we need to have our feet planted on the ground, our hands interlocked with our communities, and our eyes and minds across the past, present, and future. I am interviewing Black women from Latin America and the Caribbean to help me do just that.

First, Karina Jiménez Lewis from The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Jonathan: We are living through devastating times for our country, our democracy, and our communities worldwide. This Black History Month, how are you keeping yourself grounded on the long arc of resistance, strategy, and brilliance of Black people? 

Karina: Black History Month itself is a formidable tool to advance the constant education and learning that newer Americans like myself should undertake to place ourselves firmly in the sociopolitical and economic fabric of this country. A great many rights that Black and other immigrants of color enjoy today can be traced back to the work of African American civil rights organizations over many generations. That work continues today, of course, and I am delighted to see the contributions of Afro-Latine people to Black American life in fields as diverse as academics, arts, literature, and politics. As an Afro-Dominicana, I am fortunate to bear witness to a long arc of work for change by Black people that stretches over time and across two countries, two languages, and two cultural experiences. So, whether it is remembering the actions Gregorio Luperón or Mamá Tingó took in the land of my birth to increase the freedoms of its citizens, or the documentation of AfroLatine experiences through the work of Elizabeth Acevedo or Lorgia García Peña, I understand that my grounding is rooted in a powerful lineage that transcends geography and time.

Jonathan: I am in this work because I believe we can transform our country and our world into places where every single member of our society can thrive. What is your vision for our people and our collective society?

Karina: My vision is a society where human value is constant and not subject to shifting trends. I am engaged in the business of transformation, and my life’s work has centered on connecting people, especially people at the margins of society, to the resources they need so they can have self-determination and agency over their lives. For that to happen, we must build and strengthen healthy and representative institutions, resource communities with adequate capital, and protect young people and families from being drawn deeply into systems and away from the relationships and connections that help them thrive. We must respond to the moment we are in by going about our business in a deliberate, steadfast fashion, be it the business of education, advocacy, leadership, or philanthropy, so that we can protect the commonwealth today and strengthen it for tomorrow. And my hope is that all this happens deep within community, as we delight in each other’s company and solidarity. 

Jonathan: What is your call to action for the philanthropic sector?

Karina: As people committed to solving complex problems and making large-scale change, we must dig deeper into our reservoirs of knowledge, expertise, and experience with the past and remind ourselves of times when we have found collective resilience and determination to face the challenges of the day. And taking on that posture includes, especially, deep, appreciative listening to our partners and to the people and communities who bear the brunt of inequities and are barred from even the most basic of opportunities. Those communities include many people who are racially and ethnically Black but not African American, and this feature can render their needs and contributions effectively invisible. This Black History Month, my call to action is to be ever more intentional in our understanding of the strengths and needs of people and communities so that we can better go about the business of transformation for all.  

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Karina Jiménez Lewis, Associate Director, Policy Reform & Advocacy, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

As associate director of Policy Reform and Advocacy, Karina Jiménez Lewis leads the Foundation's state policy, refor, and advocacy efforts, including engaging young leaders to advocate for policies that can improve the lives of youth and families in states where the need is greatest. In her most recent role as a senior associate with the policy reform and advocacy team, she worked with state advocates to help advance policy strategies grounded in evidence and data, with a focus on the well-being of young people of color. Her portfolio included the KIDS COUNT®, Partnership for America’s Children and State Priorities Partnership networks. Before joining the Policy Reform and Advocacy team in 2016, she developed expertise in child welfare over 15 years of social work policy and practice in state agency and nonprofit settings, including working with Casey Family Services, the Foundation's former child welfare agency. Jiménez Lewis earned a master’s degree in social work with a focus on policy practice at the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree from Elms College in Massachusetts.