Kica Matos
Kica Matos heads the U.S. Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme at The Atlantic Philanthropies, and is based in New York.
In this capacity, Ms. Matos focuses on grants to support targeted efforts at the grassroots, state and national levels to restore civil liberties and the rule of law, protect immigrants’ rights, abolish the death penalty and advance racial justice. She uses her extensive experience as an advocate, community organiser and lawyer to help the programme’s grantees strengthen their capacity to conduct effective advocacy, build broader coalitions and connections among organisations working to protect human rights, and mobilise constituencies in support of human rights.
Ms. Matos joined Atlantic in 2009 from the City of New Haven, Connecticut, where she had served as Deputy Mayor and Administrator of Community Services. In this capacity, she oversaw all of the city's community programmes and services; she also launched a number of programmes and initiatives that included prisoner re-entry, youth and immigration integration. One groundbreaking initiative during her tenure was creation of the Elm City Resident Card, an identification card for all city residents, aimed to address public safety concerns among the immigrant population and create opportunities to engage them in civic life.
She was previously the Executive Director of JUNTA for Progressive Action, New Haven's oldest Latino community-based organisation which is located in a low-income neighbourhood with a large immigrant population. Her early work focused on criminal justice in the United States and she served as an Assistant Federal Defender, representing death row inmates in state and federal courts. She also worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Amnesty International on death penalty and criminal justice issues.
Ms. Matos earned a B.A. from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand; an M.A. in political science from The New School in New York; and a J.D. from Cornell Law School. She has received many awards, including the 2005 John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, the New Haven Register’s “Person of the Year” and the Cornell Law School Exemplary Public Service Award.
