Kheira Issaoui-Mansouri is a justice-driven leader with more than fifteen years of experience in the social sector, including strategy development, program design, facilitation, and evaluation. She has worked with dozens of nonprofits and foundations on various issues, including reproductive justice, environmental justice, and mental health. Kheira started her career in corporate social responsibility, where she developed an analysis of how corporations can understand their impact on civil society and partner with nonprofits to address challenges before they become a public crisis.
She transitioned to philanthropy and spent six years at Arabella Advisors, where she partnered with nonprofit and foundation leaders to design, implement, and evaluate efforts intended to create social change. While at Arabella, Kheira launched and led an initiative focused on centering racial equity in the firm’s services and internal practices. More recently, she held the position of Program Officer at the Irving Harris Foundation, where she managed a portfolio focused on early childhood mental health and helped refresh the foundation’s grantmaking to integrate an intersectional racial equity lens in its approach.
Kheira is the daughter of Moroccan immigrants and identifies as Arab/North African (her roots) and Quebecoise (where she grew up). She enjoys talking about the latest podcast she discovered, making harira soup, and watching whales.