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Azadeh (Azi) Khalili is the Executive Director of Humanity in Action and a lifelong feminist changemaker committed to strengthening the global social justice movement. A seasoned executive and human rights advocate, she brings more than three decades of experience in government, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector, where she has led equity-centered strategy, movement-building, and systems change.
Azi’s career spans from grassroots organizing to high-level policy leadership. She served as the founding Executive Director of the NYC Commission on Gender Equity and as Deputy Commissioner of the Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, where she co-wrote dozens of laws and policies that mandated over 50 city agencies to expand access to services for women and immigrants. She led the development of New York City’s language access policies and spearheaded citywide strategies to ensure government programs centered the needs of marginalized communities.
In philanthropy, Azi served as Senior Vice President for Strategic Partnerships at The New York Women’s Foundation, where she led a year-long strategic planning process, raised millions of dollars, and helped deepen the Foundation’s commitment to trust-based grantmaking. She has also provided consulting and organizational development support to Grassroots International, the Fund for the City of New York, and the Freedom Together Foundation.
As a nonprofit leader, she founded an international HIV prevention initiative for youth that was replicated in seven U.S. cities and in South Africa. She has led and scaled youth-serving programs, directed HIV/AIDS initiatives during the height of the epidemic, and facilitated national and international workshops on racial and gender equity and activist leadership.
Azi currently serves as Chair of the Board of the New Economy Project, where she led board development and an executive transition. She also sits on the boards of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and the Common Thread Project. She holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University and is a former fellow of both the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Charles H. Revson Fellowship.
Azi lives in Brooklyn with her husband, a three-time Emmy Award winner who makes social impact films, and their teenage daughter.
Updated April 2025