Aisha Nyandoro is on a mission to holistically and compassionately lift families out of cycles of poverty.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Springboard To Opportunities, she uses a “radically resident-driven” approach to end generational poverty. She is a national leader in the fight for policies ranging from a federal guaranteed income to an expanded Child Tax Credit, testifying on Capitol Hill to call for a social safety net that finally ends poverty by offering direct cash. She’s both deeply practical and very impatient–launching the very first of its kind guaranteed income program for single, black mothers in the history of the United States. That effort, Magnolia Mother’s Trust, has been written about everywhere, from The New York Times to Essence, and distinguishes her as a trailblazer in the larger national conversation about economic and racial inequity and moving towards reparations.

Her expertise on economic, racial, and gender justice issues has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Essence Magazine, NBC Nightly News and CNN, and she has received multiple honors, including being named one of TIME Magazine’s Next100, and was a recipient of the 2024 Heinz Award and the 2024 McNulty Prize. She is also a 2022 McNulty Prize Winner and the 2022 Disrupter Change Champion from Community Change.

Story-rich and full of wit, Aisha is a TED speaker and is brought to speak to a wide variety of forums — from Aspen Ideas Festival to medical conferences to universities — about economic equality and policy, and the tremendous possibilities that a guaranteed income could offer American families.