We are thrilled to announce that Fatima Angeles has been named executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation.
Fatima joins us from the California Wellness Foundation, where she has spent more than 20 years leading strategy and a team of grantmakers in supporting organizations working to increase access to health care, quality education, good jobs, and clean and safe neighborhoods across the state. Most recently, she served as vice president of programs, providing executive leadership and strategic vision for the foundation’s programs in grantmaking and program-related investments.
“Fatima is a philanthropic leader who has deep experience developing and implementing grantmaking programs focused on worker health, environmental justice and youth development,” said Seth Jaffe, executive vice president and general counsel of LS&Co. “Her programmatic experience coupled with her extensive philanthropic networks makes her the ideal leader to carry on the Levi Strauss Foundation’s mission of advancing the human rights and well-being of underserved people in places where we do business.”
In recent years, she has also developed grantmaking programs focused on providing COVID-19 relief and reducing gun violence, which have also been two areas the Levi Strauss Foundation has recently invested in.
“We’re delighted to have someone with such an extensive background in — and passion for — advocating for equity and social justice leading the foundation,” said Levi Strauss Foundation Board President Jennifer C. Haas.
Fatima will take on leadership of the Levi Strauss Foundation starting August 16. The Levi Strauss Foundation brings to life Levi Strauss & Co.’s values of originality, empathy, integrity and courage by supporting pioneering social change on the issues and events of our time. We strive for outsized impact in our core program areas — improving the lives of apparel workers, ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic and advancing social justice.
“I am honored to lead the Levi Strauss Foundation as it continues its pioneering work to advance social justice and human rights,” Fatima said. “I have long admired the foundation’s courage and willingness to be among the first funders to invest in and speak out about the most pressing issues of the day. As a woman of color and an immigrant, I am proud to bring my full self to this role – my knowledge, my lived experience and my commitment to ensuring that immigrants and people of color participate fully in philanthropy and social justice changemaking.”
Fatima holds a B.A. in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Public Health from the Columbia University School of Public Health. She currently serves as a board member for John Muir Hospital System, Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care Foundation, Carestar Foundation and Confluence Philanthropy.
